Norway builds a giant pipeline to bring CO2 to the seabed

If implemented, it would be one of the largest carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) projects in the world.

"The planned offshore pipeline has a transport capacity of 20 to 40 million tonnes of CO2 per year, responding to emerging demand for CCS from many European industrial companies," Equinor said in a statement. That's equivalent to the emissions that 3-6 million people generate.

CCS is seen as a possible solution for CO2 heavy industries as a way for them to continue operating, despite increasingly stringent emission reduction measures aimed at combating climate change.

Simulation of the Norwegian seabed CO2 capture, transport and storage system.

Under the proposal, Belgian energy infrastructure company Fluxys would operate a facility in Zeebrugge that would collect CO2 from factories and dock ships connected by pipeline.

The CO2 will then be transported through another pipeline operated by Equinor under the North Sea. This pipeline will help permanently store CO2 on the seabed off the coast of Norway.

The project is still in the feasibility study phase. Equinor and Fluxys are already working with potential clients and hope to have an investment decision in 2025.

Grete Tveit, Equinor's Senior Vice President of Low Carbon Solutions, said the project has "the potential for large-scale decarbonisation of heavy industries in Europe".

Equinor is also involved in an ongoing project to store CO2 offshore from a Norwegian cement plant and other industrial facilities.

In its latest report, the United Nations says that to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C under the Paris Agreement, reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone is not enough. The world will need to use more techniques to remove CO2 from the air and oceans.