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· Bioenergy
paired with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies has
the potential to play a critical role in meeting the UK’s net
zero ambitions
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· A
new paper from the REA urges action to be taken on a number of
levels to ensure progress in hard to decarbonise sectors
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· The
paper outlines a number of possible policy options to develop
BECCS, including increasing the UK total carbon price to
£50t/CO2 from 2020 and introducing a mechanism
which rewards negative emissions, such as tradeable allowances
under an EU-linked UK emissions trading scheme (ETS).
The REA has today launched a new paper calling for action to be
taken to ensure BECCS fulfils its potential in achieving a net
zero Britain by 2050.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has stated that achieving
net zero is not possible without a range of greenhouse gas
removal strategies. BECCS, the capture and permanent storage of
CO2 released in bioenergy processes, has a
central role to play within this.
BECCS is already a prominent concept in the climate change debate
due to its capacity to provide ‘negative emissions’, a net
removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, compensating
for slower emission reductions in hard to decarbonise
sectors.
The REA’s paper explores a range of possible policy options that
would advance BECCS and its wider co-benefits, including:
increasing the UK total carbon price to £50t/CO2 from 2020 to
promote rapid emission reductions; supporting BECCS in the
Contracts for Difference auctions; and establishing demonstration
projects at several scales that use the lowest carbon feedstocks.
This paper follows the publication of the second phase of REA’s
Bioenergy Strategy, which identified BECCS as an important
Strategic Opportunity for the UK, delivering 23 MtCO2e
of carbon savings by 2032 essential to realising the 5th Carbon
Budget and our net zero ambition.
The REA urges the Government to establish at least one commercial
large-scale BECCS project and several smaller demonstration scale
BECCS projects by the late 2020s in order to address residual
emissions from hard to decarbonise sectors of the UK economy.
Samuel Stevenson, Policy Analyst at the REA and author of
the paper commented that:
“According to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the UK
will require Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at scale in order
to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
“BECCS could play an important role in doing this
cost-effectively and sustainably, reducing annual CO2 emissions
in the UK by around ~6%, whilst also providing low carbon power,
heat and additional co-benefits.
“Negative emissions technologies like BECCS will be needed in
order to address the projected 90 - 130 MtCO2/yr ‘residual’
emissions in 2050 from difficult to decarbonise sectors such as
agriculture, aviation and industry. It is estimated that BECCS
could contribute between 24 – 51 MtCO2/yr towards this residual
total by 2050.
“However, if the UK wants to deploy BECCS and capitalise on
its negative emissions, urgent action is required. Existing
policy could be adapted to support BECCS, such as an increased,
economy-wide carbon price, a mechanism which properly rewards
negative emissions; and enabling BECCS projects to bid for a
CfD.”
—ENDS—
Notes to editors
