Connecting the Value Chain: Reflections from the IEAGHG International CCS Summer School 2026 (Robert Clarke)

I travelled to Copenhagen for the 2026 IEAGHG International CCS Summer School, arriving on what turned out to be the hottest day on record in Denmark. It was a stark reminder of why we were there in the first place. As the realities of climate change become increasingly visible, the urgency to develop and deploy emissions-reducing technologies, such as CCS, has never been greater.

As a geology PhD researcher, my focus has always been centred on storage: ensuring the safe long-term confinement of CO₂ over geological timescales. Previously, I took the supply of CO₂ for granted. At GHGT-17 in Calgary, I realised capture researchers rarely questioned where the CO₂ would ultimately be stored. This disconnect and the tendency toward hyper-fixation within isolated pockets of CCS research drew me to the IEAGHG International CCS Summer School. I knew it would force me out of my storage bubble to view the entire value chain, spanning capture, transport, utilization, policy, regulation and public engagement, over an intensive week of lectures, group work and site visits.

The summer school was hosted by INNO-CCUS at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and attended by 49 students from over 30 countries. This global cohort represented a diverse background of disciplines and career stages, with everyone contributing unique perspectives drawn from their own corner of the CCUS value chain and personal experience. The series of lectures mapped out the full value chain, covering everything from the deep technical challenges to the complex political landscapes. Some key takeaways included:

• Capture & Transport: The immense energy required to concentrate CO₂ to super-high purities (greater than 95%), and why stripping out impurities like NO_x and SO_x is critical for safe transport, especially in hub and cluster projects.
• Economics & Policy: How reliable carbon pricing and government incentives are finally transitioning CCS toward self-sustaining, commercial operations.
• Storage & Safety: The critical need to model plume migration scenarios to prevent leakage from legacy wells or excursions beyond licence boundaries, alongside choosing targeted monitoring technologies that can accurately spot and attribute any anomalies.
• Regulation: The urgent requirement to update international frameworks to enable trustworthy cross-border carbon trading and airtight carbon accounting.
• Social License: The importance of constant, honest public engagement: the exact factor that enabled our host nation, Denmark, to rapidly roll out CCS over the past decade.

At the beginning of the week, the class was split into six groups to act as consultants for the Northern Lights CCS joint venture (JV), with each team focusing on a different aspect of the value chain to offer strategic recommendations. With help from our brilliant mentors, our group was tasked with looking at regulation. We delved deep into the key regulatory frameworks constraining EU/EEA CCS projects and identified gaps and grey areas. Chief among these was the question of when liability for CO₂ transfers between capture, transport and storage providers occurs, discovering that binding corporate agreements currently act as a flexible temporary band-aid.

At the end of the week, all the teams presented their findings to the class. Each group brought a dose of creative entertainment to their projects. We witnessed everything from a simulated mob protest disrupting the public engagement team, to a parody of the summer school taking place in the year 2040. Our own team dramatized the heated arguments that arise from regulatory grey areas, while another group staged a production of ‘The Wheel’ where the absolute best transport option was determined to be ‘Boats, boats, boats!’.

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly the site visits. We started at ARC Amager Bakke (CopenHill), Copenhagen’s iconic waste-to-energy plant featuring an artificial ski slope on its roof. The facility incinerates 600,000 tons of waste annually, producing 57 MW of electricity and district heating for the region. It was fascinating to watch gigantic claws load the furnace and to peer directly into the raging inferno. Following a 2021 CO₂ capture pilot, the site developed a demonstration plant in 2023, capturing nearly 4 tons of CO₂ per day (used in local commercial greenhouses). Despite funding for a full-scale facility falling through, full-scale capture remains ARC’s long-term ambition.

In the afternoon, we travelled south to Ørsted’s Avedøre Power Station, a bioenergy plant currently installing a capture facility to collect 150,000 tons of CO₂ annually. From here, the CO₂ will be transported by truck 100 km to the Kalundborg CO₂ Hub on the west of Zealand. It will then be loaded onto Northern Lights’ transport ships, taken to Norway’s Øygarden facility, and ultimately injected 2.6 km beneath the seabed into the Aurora reservoir 110 km offshore.

Touring the facility and seeing the sheer magnitude of the capture plant, its towering absorbers and three enormous CO₂ tanks was a profound moment. Standing there, I truly appreciated that CCS is no longer just the subject of research papers and news articles, but a living breathing technology being built right now. It was incredibly fitting that our group projects had focused on the Northern Lights project, as this visit pulled the entire value chain together. CCS was real and it was tangible!

As the final day wrapped up, it was clear that the informal conversations beyond the lecture theatre, such as over coffee, meals and evening socialising, had proven just as valuable as the formal sessions. The week of networking built lasting professional relationships and friendships with both classmates and mentors.

We celebrated these bonds at the final night’s gala dinner, enjoying fantastic food, live music and Copenhagen’s vibrant nightlife before departing for home. I left not only with an incredible international network but with vital new skills: the ability to speak across disciplines, understand the complex bottlenecks facing other sectors and an appreciation far beyond my own geological bubble. It was deeply inspiring to recognise that, despite our different specialisms, we are all contributing toward the same objective.

I am immensely grateful to the mentors, sponsors and the entire IEAGHG team for organising such a transformative week. Of the many lessons I learnt that week, the most valuable was that no single discipline can deliver CCS alone. Progress depends on engineers, geoscientists, economists, policymakers and social scientists understanding one another’s challenges. If you ever have the opportunity to apply or attend this Summer School, I cannot recommend it enough!