Capturing CO2 in the North Sea may continue. Johan Vollenbroek loses the battle, but may have already won the bigger battle

The Council of State has given the green light to one of the most controversial parts of climate policy. The cabinet wants a brand new installation to be built in the port of Rotterdam that will produce CO on a large scale₂ will capture emissions from the refineries of Shell and ExxonMobil, among others. That greenhouse gas must then be pumped into an old gas field in the North Sea, so that it is made ‘harmless’ to the climate. In a long-awaited judgment in a legal procedure surrounding that project, the highest administrative court ruled on Wednesday that the project, called Porthos, “can go ahead”.

Environmental groups strongly criticized the project almost two years ago when it was announced. Mobilization for the Environment (MOB), by chemist Johan Vollenbroek, went to court to stop the project. First of all, they doubt whether the technology, carbon capture and storage (CCS) does work at all – it has never been applied on this scale before in the world, they say.

But above all, they believe that it is completely the wrong way to combat climate change. For this, the main causes of this, the oil companies, must be forced to produce less CO₂ to produce. You should not give them an incentive to continue their polluting activities any longer. Precisely at the companies where sustainability is most needed and things are already progressing excruciatingly slowly, what is really necessary does not happen, concludes MOB.

The Council of State swept all objections on Wednesday off the table that MOB had brought against the project there. According to the environmental group, the construction of the infrastructure – consisting of a compressor station, pipelines and a converted gas platform in the North Sea – will release too much nitrogen, which will endanger nearby Natura 2000 areas, including some dunes.

According to MOB, a calculation that the state itself had previously carried out by engineering firm Arcadis, which shows that there are no or negligible risks in this area. The environmental group speaks of one “money laundering report”.

Arcadis came to a total of 160 tons of nitrogen emissions during construction. According to the companies that will soon manage the infrastructure of Porthos, Gasunie, Energiebeheer Nederland and the Port of Rotterdam Authority, this is “comparable to the amount emitted by one diesel car when driving 200,000 km”.

The Council of State came to a different conclusion than the MOB on Wednesday. It ruled that the nitrogen consequences had been investigated with ‘the required depth’ and ‘on the basis of the correct starting points’. The conclusion that the engineering firm itself drew in its investigation, that it was “out of the question” that the nature reserves would suffer “significant” damage, thus remained valid, according to the judge. Even if there was a temporary ‘limited’ increase in nitrogen emissions.

Huge boost

For the outgoing and future cabinet, the judgment is a huge boost. Without Porthos, the government had its own climate goals (55 percent less CO₂emissions in 2030 compared to 1990) and she would have had to look for another way to achieve the desired reduction. That should have been a firm measure. The ambition of the Porthos builders is to fifteen years 37 million tons of CO₂ to catch. This corresponds to 10 percent of the total emissions of the Rotterdam industry.

The PBL previously concluded that the government was not on track to achieve the targets. Without Porthos, the problems would have been even more difficult to oversee. _{Criticism from environmental movements, among others, is that the cabinet is returning to this kind of controversial steps because it has failed to make policy for years to force major polluters to reduce emissions. Once time was running out, there weren’t many other options left.}

The environmental movement Natuur & Milieu also pointed to this tricky point in a reaction to the verdict on Wednesday. The organization said it felt “some relief” because “without this project it will be extremely difficult to achieve the climate goals, with all the disastrous consequences that entails.”

‘Goat path’

For MOB, the verdict is a major setback. _{At the same time, the action group may have lost this battle, but it may well have won the larger battle. In an earlier interim ruling in the Porthos case, MOB achieved a glorious and important victory. The Council of State then ruled that a ‘goat path’ that the cabinet had devised to allow construction projects to continue despite the nitrogen ruling of 2019 (also from the Council of State) was in violation of European nature legislation.}

Read also: The nitrogen ruling in the Porthos case blocks the cabinet’s great ambitions

An ‘exemption’ that the cabinet had devised for the construction phase of projects and which it applied to Porthos was not allowed. As a result, every new construction project must now be individually assessed for nitrogen emissions, also before the construction phase (and not just when the project is put into operation). That statement still stands and is seen as important for nature conservation. In the final judgment on Wednesday, the Council of State emphasizes that every future construction project will have to be assessed in its own specific context. The current judgment does not mean that there is now a ‘generic threshold’ for nitrogen emissions from construction below which any project can proceed. MOB feared that.

The verdict is also pleasant for Arcadis. It would have been extremely painful if it had been revealed that the government could ‘order’ an investigation from a leading engineering firm such as Arcadis. Porthos, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and business associations were all delighted on Wednesday. VNO-NCW and MKB Nederland wrote: “The ruling of the Council of State keeps our climate goals alive and an important hurdle has been cleared for achieving our climate goals in 2030.” According to the interest group, companies are “in the starting blocks” to make their contribution to the climate battle. Porthos reports that construction will begin in 2024 and the project should be completed in 2026.