Net zero & Carbon capture – Rachel Reeves comments on Government response

Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has commented today on the publication of the Government’s response to the Committee report on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage and on the new administration’s overall approach to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Given the Government’s ‘disappointing’ response on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS), which ‘appears to row back from statements made by former Ministers’, the Chair has also written to the Minister Kwasi Kwarteng with a series of questions seeking to establish the Government’s policy direction on CCUS.

The Government response is published alongside a letter from Kwasi Kwarteng. Also published is correspondence from former Minister Claire Perry and a letter from Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom.

Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee said: “The Secretary of State is happy to reiterate the Government’s commitment to net-zero by 2050 but fails to give any sense that her Government is dedicated to the urgent actions necessary to achieve it.

“It’s easy to set a target. The harder challenge is putting in place the measures needed to get to net-zero by 2050. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State’s letter gives little confidence that the Government has a clear idea of the policies it wants to pursue to make UK net-zero carbon emissions a reality. Given the UK is hosting COP26 next year, it’s important that we provide international leadership by getting our act together at home on climate change policy.

“It’s encouraging that the Treasury’s review will look at the benefits, as well as the costs, of net zero. Ending the UK’s contribution to climate change has the potential for major health and environmental benefits. It is also crucial the Treasury examines where costs will fall, how the transition can be funded, and how to manage the impacts on bill-payers, motorists and carbon-intensive industries.”

“The Minister’s response to our Carbon Capture Usage and Storage report is very disappointing and sits in contrast to the initial enthusiasm to our findings displayed by the previous Minister, Claire Perry. The Government’s response barely engages with the specific recommendations of our report and it is worrying that the Government now appears to be rowing back on previous commitments. This must be concerning for industry and investors and I hope the Government will rethink its approach and come forward with a clearer indication of what it is doing to ensure CCUS technology is able to deliver on its potential.”

In July, Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee wrote to Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom, the then new Secretary of State for DBEIS, to press for action on a series of policy fronts such as electric vehicles, carbon capture usage and storage, and energy efficiency, to ramp up UK efforts to meet future carbon budgets and the net-zero 2050 target.  

In April, the BEIS Committee published its report, Carbon capture usage and storage: third time lucky? The report urged the Government to give a clear policy direction to ensure the UK was able to seize the industrial and decarbonisation benefits of carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS). The report noted that although the UK has one of the most favourable environments globally for CCUS the technology had suffered 15 years of turbulent policy support, including the cancellation of two major competitions at a late stage. No commercial-scale plant for CCUS has yet been constructed in the UK.

ENDS

Background on BEIS Committee’s work relating to climate change and net-zero 

Response from Chancellor Phillip Hammond letter to Rachel Reeves Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee on net zero and responding to series of questions concerning reports that Government estimates put the cost of meeting the net zero carbon emissions target by 2050 at £1 trillion.  Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee letter to Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer.  

On 12^th July, the Committee published a report on energy efficiency. The report warned that the UK stands no chance of meeting its emissions reduction targets, including net zero by 2050, unless the Government takes urgent action to revive its failing energy efficiency policy and builders are compelled to deliver the latest energy efficiency standards. 

On Tuesday 9th July, the BEIS Committee questioned Sir David Attenborough on a range of issues relating to climate change and the ‘net zero’ emissions target.  Following the Prime Minister’s commitment to the UK cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and the publication of the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) report, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee held a session on Tuesday 18^th June examining the rationale for going faster to hit the net zero target, hearing from witnesses including Gail Bradbrook, Extinction Rebellion, Isabella O'Dowd, Climate and Energy Specialist, WWF, and Baroness Bryony Worthington, Environmental Defense Fund. 

On Wednesday 8^th May, the BEIS Committee questioned the Committee on Climate Change and business stakeholders on the net zero target and actions needed to achieve net zero emissions.  

The BEIS Committee recently joined with five other select committees of the House of Commons (Environmental Audit; Housing, Communities and Local Government; Science and Technology; Transport; and Treasury) to announce plans to hold a Citizens’ Assembly on combatting climate change and achieving the pathway to net zero carbon emissions. 

BEIS Committee  

Media inquiries: Gary Calder calderg@parliament.uk /020 7219 7556 

Committee Membership: Rachel Reeves MP (Chair) (Lab, Leeds West) Vernon Coaker MP (Lab, Gedling) Drew Hendry MP (SNP, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) Stephen Kerr MP (Con, Stirling) Peter Kyle MP (Lab, Hove) Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger MP (Con, Bridgwater and West Somerset) Sir Patrick McLoughlin MP (Con, Derbyshire Dales) Albert Owen MP (Lab, Ynys Môn), Mark Pawsey MP (Con, Rugby) Antoinette Sandbach MP (Independent, Eddisbury) Anna Turley MP (Lab, Redcar).