The Austrian federal government has advanced a draft bill to reverse its 15-year-old ban on geological carbon dioxide storage, a policy shift explicitly designed to open the country to large-scale industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and, in particular, attract developers of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).
The ban, originally introduced in 2011, has long been viewed as a structural barrier to CCS deployment in Austria despite the country's stated climate ambitions.
The legislative reversal forms part of Austria's broader push toward climate neutrality by 2040, positioning geological CO2 storage as a tool for addressing emissions that cannot be eliminated through conventional decarbonisation routes.
Unlike jurisdictions that have pursued unrestricted CCS expansion, Austria's draft law takes a deliberately constrained approach. Geological storage would be permitted primarily for unavoidable residual emissions—those arising from hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel, paper and ceramics production—and would be subject to strict annual limits. The draft proposes capping the volume of emissions removed from the atmosphere via this method at no more than 5 per cent of Austria's total man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
This cap positions the policy as a targeted intervention for genuinely hard-to-decarbonise industrial processes, rather than a broad licence for continued fossil emissions offset by storage. For BECCS specifically, this framing is significant: bioenergy facilities capturing biogenic CO2 during combustion or processing could qualify for storage capacity within this constrained allocation, offering a pathway to negative emissions rather than merely emissions avoidance.
Scientific estimates included in the draft legislation point to considerable domestic storage potential. Austria is estimated to hold 150 to 250 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent storage capacity within hydrocarbon-bearing geological structures, alongside more than 1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent capacity in deeper saline aquifers.
This scale of potential storage—particularly the saline aquifer capacity—suggests Austria's geological resources could support CCS and BECCS deployment well beyond the current 5 per cent emissions cap, should policy constraints be relaxed in future revisions.
Economic incentive
The policy shift is designed to work in tandem with the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). By enabling geological CO2 storage, industrial emitters would gain a route to reduce their obligations to surrender EU emission allowances, creating a direct financial incentive tied to carbon pricing.
For BECCS operators specifically, the combination of biogenic carbon capture and geological storage offers potential access to negative-emissions credits, a category increasingly sought after within voluntary and compliance carbon markets as demand grows for verified carbon removal rather than avoidance alone.
Public consultation underway
The Carbon Dioxide Storage Act has been released for public consultation alongside a new Climate Act and updated Environmental Impact Assessment rules. Industry groups and members of the public have until the end of October 2026 to submit feedback before the legislative package proceeds to the Austrian Parliament.
