The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy (Greg Hands): I am today providing an
update on the UK’s CCUS cluster sequencing process which was
launched in May this year. Carbon capture, usage and storage, or
CCUS, will be essential to meeting our net zero ambitions and will
be an exciting new industry to capture the carbon we continue to
emit and revitalise the birthplaces of the first industrial
revolution. The Prime Minister’s ten-point plan...Request free trial
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy (): I am today providing an update on the UK’s CCUS
cluster sequencing process which was launched in May this year.
Carbon capture, usage and storage, or CCUS, will be essential to
meeting our net zero ambitions and will be an exciting new industry
to capture the carbon we continue to emit and revitalise the
birthplaces of the first industrial revolution.
The Prime Minister’s ten-point plan established a commitment to
deploy CCUS in a minimum of two industrial clusters by the
mid-2020s, and four by 2030 at the latest. Our aim is to use CCUS
technology to capture and store 20 to 30 MtCO2 per year by 2030,
forming the foundations for future investment and potential export
opportunities. CCUS will be crucial for industrial decarbonisation,
low-carbon power, engineered greenhouse gas removal technologies
and delivering our 5GW by 2030 low-carbon hydrogen production
ambition.
Our cluster sequencing process, which has, through the CCS
infrastructure fund, £1 billion to provide industry with the
certainty required to deploy CCUS at pace and at scale, has
completed the first phase of the evaluation of the five cluster
submissions received by my Department.
I am today confirming that the Hynet and East Coast clusters have
been confirmed as Track 1 clusters for the mid-2020s and will be
taken forward into Track 1 negotiations. If the clusters represent
value for money for the consumer and the taxpayer then subject to
final decisions of Ministers, they will receive support under the
Government’s CCUS programme. We are also announcing the Scottish
cluster as a reserve cluster if a back-up is needed. A reserve
cluster is one which met the eligibility criteria and performed to
a good standard against the evaluation criteria. As such, we will
continue to engage with the Scottish Cluster throughout phase 2 of
the sequencing process, to ensure it can continue its development
and planning. This means that if Government choose to discontinue
engagement with a cluster in Track 1, we can engage with this
reserve cluster instead.
Deploying CCUS will be a significant undertaking; these are new
major infrastructure projects for a new sector of the economy and
carry with them significant risks to deliver by the mid-2020s.
Government will continue to play a role in providing long-term
certainty to these projects to manage these risks and bring forward
the UK’s first CCUS clusters.
We remain committed to helping all industrial clusters to
decarbonise as we work to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and we
are clear that CCUS will continue to play a key role in this
process. Consequently, the Government continue to be committed to
Track 2 enabling 10Mtpa capacity operational by 2030. This puts
these places—Teesside, the Humber, Merseyside, north Wales and the
north-east of Scotland—among the potential early super-places which
will be transformed over the next decade.
