In a Nutshell

• Croatia has not yet set a CDR target. The country focuses mostly on soil carbon sequestration and more recently on carbon capture and storage.
• The passing of contradicting pieces of legislation on geological CO₂ storage has been identified as one of the main roadblocks to the successful development of the country’s storage capacities.
• With several ongoing carbon management projects supported by EU funds and a substantial theoretical CO₂ storage capacity, Croatia could become a storage hub in the region.
• A National Feasibility Study on the capture, transport, injection and storage of CO₂, as well as the interconnection of CO₂ transport systems, is under development.

Role for carbon removal in national climate policy

Croatia has not set explicit targets for carbon removal. The country emphasises soil carbon sequestration in its climate policy. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is also gaining importance in the country’s toolbox to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

Croatia’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) presents multiple measures targeted at increasing the net carbon sink capacities of the land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector to 5.5Mt CO₂eq by 2030. For instance, measures for agricultural soils are presented, including measures for agricultural soils, and potential new business models to finance carbon farming practices. Croatia will implement the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF)  through its national certification scheme and registry. There are several measures within the NECP aimed at the forestry sector, including afforestation, reforestation – where there is an initiative to plant one million trees a year – and an increase in the use of wood products, for example, for construction. Besides the CRCF, Croatia is looking to the Common Agricultural Policy and EU funds for development as funding sources for such activities.

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Relevant legal frameworks

The Climate Change and Protection of the Ozone Layer Act is the country’s main climate law. While it does not set explicit climate targets, it sets out the overall legislative structure around the country’s climate policy. Furthermore, it mandates the development of a low-carbon development strategy and a related action plan. It also states that revenues from the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) will be used to finance improvements in monitoring carbon stocks in forests, the sustainable use of forest resources and wood products, as well as the development of environmentally safe CCS, especially from fossil fuel power plants and certain industrial sectors, such as cement.

The legislative framework around geological CO₂ storage includes multiple legislations built around two main laws. The ordinance on permanent storage of carbon dioxide in geological formations sets out procedures to determine the possibility of such storage. The conditions for obtaining concessions, exploration and storage permits are defined by the law on hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. It regulates CO₂ storage in accordance with the EU CCS Directive. These two pieces of legislation on CO₂ storage sometimes contradict each other and have been identified as the most hindering elements to the successful implementation of CCS.

Support for R&D and Innovation

The Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency provides funding for various types of projects, including those focused on CO₂ mitigation, which includes CCS, along with funding the protection and preservation of biological and landscape diversity. Revenues are drawn from Croatia’s allocated revenues from the EU-ETS, as well as from regional budgets and various domestic taxes on pollution.

In addition to receiving national funding, several CCS projects have received, or will receive, EU funds. The Geothermal CCS project was selected as a Project of Common Interest in the sixth list of PCIs released in November 2023. It will enable CO₂ captured at the Našice cement plant – part of the  CO₂NTESSA project – to be stored in an onshore saline aquifer next to a geothermal plant. This project also received early Innovation Fund funding, and its first phase could store 0.6MtCO₂/year. The project would also build a pipeline linking to a cement factory in Hungary.

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On the Horizon

The development of a National Feasibility Study on the capture, transport, injection and storage of CO₂, as well as the interconnection of CO₂ transport systems, has been mentioned since 2019 in the first version of the NECP. Alongside the feasibility study, plans are underway for the development of an evaluation study on national CO₂ storage capacity alongside an action plan for preparatory activities for CCS projects. 

By the end of 2026, EUR 14 million will be invested in pilot projects to enable the development and commercialisation of CCS through the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

A bioeconomy strategy aimed at clarifying how the bioeconomy sector should be transformed will soon be developed. It will include an assessment on the use of biomass from agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, with a view towards creating new value chains for biomass.