Austria: Austria will require a 1000km-long CO₂ pipeline through the Alps to serve its 2050 goal of 100% industrial carbon capture. A study by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) found that the pipeline would cost €10.7bn and transport 9.2Mt/yr of CO2 by 2040, 13% of Austria’s entire CO2 emissions. A main line would run from Linz in Upper Austria to Vienna, then on to Burgenland and Styria before entering Italy, where CO₂ would be exported for storage under the Adriatic or North Seas.
UBA studied 31 Austrian industrial plants, including all cement and lime plants nationally, and found that carbon capture is presently uneconomical for all plants, based on an EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) credit price of €70/t. It modelled one proposed scenario in which the government funds 50% of the entire cost of industrial carbon capture systems and transport infrastructure, at a total €7.3bn over a 13-year construction period.
