PCI label:
a decarbonisation project
of common interest
The Pycasso project is seen as a response to national and European carbon neutrality ambitions. The European Commission has acknowledged its relevance, including it in the list of PCIs (Projects of Common Interest) supporting cross-border climate-friendly energy infrastructure projects.
Commitments around a common project
The project’s leaders are committed to exploring three priority areas in its development:
Full management of the environmental impacts and guaranteed safety
Guaranteeing the integrity of installations is paramount. Studies and tests will be undertaken in close collaboration with State departments, looking at monitoring, control and preventive maintenance systems.
Saving industry
Protecting, increasing and improving the sustainability of employment is decisive. A study of “Jobs and Skills in the CCUS sector” in the Lacq-Pau-Tarbes industrial territory is one strategy that will be launched within the context of the region’s industrial transition.
Social acceptability
Submitting the project for joint consultation is crucial. Under the aegis of the National Commission on Public Debate (CNDP), Teréga, Lafarge and their partners will engage with the population as a whole and offer the people practical benefits in order to work together on this decarbonisation project.
Benefits of the project for the territory
Pycasso aims to reduce CO2 emissions and to promote a circular economy. By helping the sector to decarbonise, it will enable it to speed up its transformation. The environmental struggle becomes the key to new development prospects, to preserve industry in the basin.
The economic advantages of the Pycasso project :
- Provide the cement, chemicals, steel, metallurgy and papermaking industries with a solution for the transport and storage of their residual CO2 that is cheaper than export.
- Improve competitiveness and safeguard employment, through economies of scale.
- Offer France its industrial sovereignty.
- Attract new “green” activities, that create jobs, through the reutilisation of the captured CO2.
- Deliver international visibility for the Pyrenean foothills, in their capacity as a territory of excellence in carbon management.
- Provide the regional population with decarbonised local products at controlled prices.
A cross-border collective project
The aim of Pycasso is to connect the main industrial centres in the Far South-West of France, emitting residual CO2, to a single network of underground pipelines, with one or more geological storage sites in the Pyrenean foothills. Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie will account for more than half of emissions. The remainder could come from the North-East of Spain and/or the Atlantic seaboard via port terminals.
More than just a plan to unite the regions around a common goal, Pycasso wants to establish itself as a territorial project, involving the local population, their elected representatives, industrial actors and trades union organisations at every stage. Dialogue with the stakeholders will be the real cornerstone of the programme and will be fully exploited, with a public debate being set up, allowing each individual to have a say.
Funding as a PCI
Recognition of Pycasso as a PCI brings a number of advantages for the project. It may apply for European financial support and take advantage of simplified procedures for obtaining permits and authorisations. Actors and partners who have committed to the programme will also benefit from funding for their preliminary studies.
Alongside this, Pycasso will be seen as an important component of ZIBAC (Low Carbon Industrial Area) projects in the Lacq and Bordeaux basins, and as such will be able to draw on public aid from the State and ADEME.