Europe’s CO₂ Hub Alliance Pushes Cross-border Storage

Industry-backed group seeks to align rules and cut risk for shared carbon transport and storage

10 Feb 2026

Europe’s carbon capture sector is moving towards a more coordinated phase as industry groups and governments seek to overcome one of its main constraints: transporting captured carbon dioxide across borders to suitable storage sites. The launch of CO₂ Hub Europe follows recent international agreements that allow cross-border CO₂ transport and storage, and reflects efforts to turn scattered projects into a more integrated European system.

Carbon capture technology is widely available, but deployment has been held back by infrastructure gaps and differing national rules. Many industrial sites are far from viable storage locations, particularly offshore reservoirs beneath the North Sea. CO₂ Hub Europe aims to address this by bringing together governments, network operators and industrial companies to improve coordination on transport and storage networks.

The alliance is not designed to develop projects itself. Instead, it positions itself as a platform to support alignment on regulation, technical standards and access rules, with the aim of enabling networks that can be shared across industries and borders. Supporters say this could reduce costs and lower investment risk, making carbon storage more accessible for a wider group of companies.

“This is about building a system, not just pipelines,” said one industry participant involved in the initiative. Without greater coordination, they warned, Europe risks spending heavily on infrastructure that does not connect or scale effectively.

The initiative comes as the EU steps up its work on carbon capture, utilisation and storage as part of its industrial decarbonisation strategy. Brussels is developing plans for CO₂ transport corridors and has signalled that funding will increasingly favour projects with cross-border impact.

Energy groups including Gasunie and Equinor have argued that future CO₂ networks should operate in a similar way to gas grids, with clear access rules and long-term regulatory stability. Shared infrastructure, they say, is essential if multiple industries and countries are to use storage sites efficiently.

CO₂ Hub Europe also reflects a broader shift in Europe’s energy transition towards collaboration rather than national systems. Regional hubs that pool demand and storage capacity could lower barriers for new entrants and encourage industries that have been cautious about carbon capture to move ahead.

Significant challenges remain, including how costs are shared, how liability is managed and who holds long-term responsibility for stored CO₂. Aligning national interests will be difficult. Even so, industry participants view the initiative as a necessary step as Europe seeks to cut emissions while preserving industrial competitiveness.