Burning waste is one of a city’s biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions; capturing that CO₂ is technically possible today, but finance, regulation and public trust still stand between ambition and a full-scale plant.

Waste-to-energy (WtE) plants are among the largest single sources of greenhouse gas emissions in many cities, which makes them an obvious target for carbon capture and storage (CCS), all the more so because capturing biogenic CO₂ can deliver genuinely negative emissions. The technology is feasible. The hard part is everything around it: the societal, regulatory and economic factors are still uncertain and evolving, and what is true today may not hold next month. In Trondheim, a research project set out to navigate exactly this, and distilled what it learned into 14 concrete recommendations.

Recognizing that WtE is one of the city’s largest single sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the CCWaSte4NetZero project established a common starting point by engaging key stakeholders, including municipal authorities, industry, research institutions, and the public, to align on the importance of WtE-CCS.

The project represents an important step in Trondheim’s journey toward climate neutrality. By addressing technical, financial, and social challenges associated with CCS for WtE, the project aimed to:

• Strengthen policy frameworks at municipal, national, and EU levels.
• Develop a viable business model that balances costs, incentives, and regulatory support.
• Enhance public and stakeholder engagement.
• Leverage international best practices from Zurich, Oslo, and European CCS initiatives.
• Include research insights from ACCSESS, CaptureX, and other CCS and/or municipal waste-related projects.

By combining technology, governance, finance, and public participation, this project set the foundation for a replicable CCS model that other European cities can adopt.

The project’s key objective has been to develop a viable business model that makes CCS financially sustainable and scalable while securing public trust and policy/regulatory support. The initiative demonstrates that cities can take a leading role in driving CCS adoption, ensuring that waste incineration remains a sustainable solution within the broader transition to a climate-neutral, circular economy.

One of the central focus points of the project was to develop a shared understanding of systemic challenges and opportunities, ensuring that WtE-CCS is integrated into the city’s broader climate action and circular economy strategies. By learning from best practices in Zurich, Oslo, and other European cities, Trondheim aims to position itself as a leading example in urban CCS deployment.

A critical component has been to identify barriers and drivers of CCS. This activity built on research insights from ACCSESS (EU Horizon 2020), CaptureX, IEA Bioenergy Intertask project on BECCUS, CCS Mid-Norway and KSP CircWtE, which provide valuable knowledge on business models, regulatory frameworks, and technical integration. Policy alignment at the EU, national, and municipal levels is essential for the project’s realization, as it ensures that CCS incentives, financial mechanisms, and carbon taxation policies support its implementation. Additionally, Trondheim’s WtE operator, Lunera Energi, is active in the KAN-network, a group of eight Norwegian WtE plants exploring CCS, enhances shared learning and infrastructure development for CO₂ transport and storage.

WtE CCS is feasible and an essential contributor to negative emissions. But it is also complex, with many societal, technological, regulatory and economical challenges to address. Many of these elements are still uncertain and evolving (the EU Emissions Trading System, for example) and this lack of stability makes the deployment of WtE CCS difficult.

In the project, we gathered up-to-date information and knowledge on enablers and barriers from a wide variety of sources – from EU regulations to R&D projects and industrial case studies. These  were distilled in a list of 14 concrete recommendations. This list encompasses essential ingredients for the development of WtE CCS full-scale projects. The axes were selected to encompass all dimensions of a WtE CCS project. Different recommendations are aimed at different actors (municipalities, WtE operators, authorities, technology, R&D) and aim to cover all stakeholders interested in developing a CCS WtE project in Europe.

Keeping up with such a dynamic landscape is difficult, and what is true today may not hold next month. Yet many actors are committed to making WtE CCS happen, and they are calling for a stable framework to deliver on circularity and climate action. 

14 concrete recommendations for the development of full-scale WtE CCS projects