Business Committee Chair calls for clarity from Government on Carbon capture usage and storage

The correspondence notes that CCS infrastructure will only be built by the private sector with government support and expresses concern at the Government’s current approach, which risks limiting the deployment of CCUS. The letter raises concern that the Government’s requirement that CCUS costs must reduce “sufficiently” if the UK is to deploy CCUS “at scale” in the 2020s or 2030s fails to provide the clarity needed for investors to push ahead with investment in CCUS infrastructure.

Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said: “Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) is critical to meeting the UK’s climate change targets. The Government has, regrettably, already performed two U-turns on their support for CCUS when it is essential that business is given more certainty on the deployment of CCUS.  The Government should spell out more clearly what they are going to do to support investment in this vital technology and help bring down costs.  The Government must explain how their policies will help drive the timely deployment of CCUS needed to help the UK meet its climate change targets. If the Government is serious about CCUS it should set out what it means by “at scale” deployment and provide clarity on whether the target is the mid-2020s or the 2030s”.

The BEIS Committee’s current inquiry on CCUS is examining the Government’s commitment to deploying CCUS technology and whether it has a “Plan B” to meet the UK’s climate change targets should desired cost reductions not materialise.

On Wednesday 21 November, the BEIS Committee questioned Climate Change Minister Claire Perry on the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, international climate change targets and the Committee’s current inquiry on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS).

ENDS

The BEIS Committee’s inquiry on carbon capture follows earlier Committee work on the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy. The Clean Growth Strategy sets out the Government’s aim to “deploy CCUS at scale during the 2030s, subject to costs coming down sufficiently”.  The Government has established a CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce to explore options to bring forward cost reductions, which will report in summer 2018.  

Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) is a set of technologies which can together capture carbon dioxide from waste gases, and either ‘lock up’ this carbon dioxide in long-term storage or use it in industrial processes.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) – here the captured carbon dioxide is transported (by ship or pipeline) for long term storage in geological formations; the UK has a large number of potential offshore storage sites, particularly in the North Sea.

Carbon capture and use (CCU) – this makes use of the captured carbon in industrial processes, for example in enhanced oil recovery or the manufacture of chemicals and building materials.