EU moves to fast-track "clean coal" proposals

By Pete Harrison and Paul Taylor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union may boost efforts to capture climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) and store it underground by pushing forward proposals for a dozen demonstration projects, EU officials said on Thursday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), designed to trap CO2 emissions from power plants and heavy industry, is seen as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change, but it has not yet been proven on an industrial scale.

The technology has the capacity to curb global carbon emissions by a third given that it can remove around 90 percent of all carbon from fossil fuel-fired power stations.

The European Commission has proposed legislation to encourage CCS, notably by helping fund up to 12 demonstration plants and by providing a legal and regulatory framework to make geological storage of CO2 possible.

"We may already get agreement on carbon capture and storage under the Slovenian presidency," a presidency official said.

Slovenia holds the rotating European presidency until the end of June after which France takes it over.

"It looks as if everyone is happy with the proposal," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A European Commission source said CCS could be detached from a package of energy reforms announced in January with the aim of reaching a political agreement in time for a meeting of EU ministers in June.