The CATO-2 programme is the successor of CATO-1 the first national Programme on CO₂ Capture, Transport and Storage, that was executed between 2004 and 2009. In CATO-1, 17 participating parties from industry, research institutes, universities and NGOs had established a knowledge platform, providing a leading position of the Dutch programme in the international community. CATO2 was expected to underpin Dutch participation in international research communities, such as the European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Power plants (ETP-ZEP). Moreover, CATO-2 was expected to provide the basis for realising two large-scale CCS demonstrations in the Netherlands by 2015 - as was the goal formulated back in 2009. In hindsight, the conditions for establishing the CATO-2 programme were quite favourable. First, the preceding CATO-1 programme already established a CCS network and developed some essential skills for further implementing of CCS in the Netherlands. Major industrial parties in the Netherlands were already engaged or were preparing to engage in pilots and in two integrated largescale demonstration projects. This created a clear technology demand from industry. Furthermore, the intergovernmental project organisation on CCS, established in 2007, was highly supportive as a policy makers' counterpart of the scientific and business community. Besides confirmation of the continued support from existing consortia members, CATO-2 also gained support from new members, especially in the power sector (that was formerly represented by its common research institute KEMA, now DNV-GL) and in industry. Like in CATO-1, partners were allowed to participate with in-kind or cash contributions; both investments counted as eligible cost and were to be doubled by the government, to a maximum budget of € 61 million in total for the years up to 2014. This resulted in CATO-2 participation by around 40 existing and new parties. These partners all signed a Letter of Interest, indicating their budgets. Initially partners even offered co-funding of up to approximately € 47 million, but that amount was reduced along the way to just above € 30 million. Basically, this broad support still existed at the end of CATO-2, making the case for a continuation.

The book "Linking the Chain" gives a summary of the results of the CATO-2 programme. The book can be downloaded here. The doctoral theses of the CATO-2 PhD students are also made available as PDF-files and can be found here.