: To ask His
Majesty’s Government how much of the Carbon Capture and Storage
Infrastructure Fund they have awarded in contracts to companies
involved in the oil and gas industry.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero () (Con): My Lords, no
contracts have yet been awarded through the cluster sequencing
process. The amount that may be awarded to individual projects is
still subject to negotiations. Project sponsors are from a range
of industries including cement, industrial gases, energy from
waste et cetera. In addition, up to £40 million of
the CIF is being spent under the UKRI industrial decarbonisation
challenge fund, which aims to deliver significant reductions in
industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
(GP)
That is sort of good news, because I hope that this Government
are not going to give any of that funding to fossil fuel
companies, or to any other industry that has not only had tax
breaks in the past and made massive profits but trashed the
planet knowingly. Will the Minister give me any sort of promise
that fossil fuel companies will not be entrusted with this sort
of technology, which is already considered very risky and
ineffective?
(Con): No, I will not give
the noble Baroness that assurance, for a number of good reasons.
First, in the real world, as opposed to in the noble Baroness’s
fantasy green world, CCUS is an essential technology.
Noble Lords: Oh!
(Con): The Climate Change
Committee has said that CCUS is essential and not an option if we
are to meet our net-zero goal, which we wish to do. Secondly, in
a number of industries—cement and energy from
waste et cetera—CCUS is the only option to
decarbonise those industries. Unless the noble Baroness is saying
that she wants them all to close down, so that we have no
building in this country and import all our cement from overseas,
what is her practical solution in the real world to delivering
these technologies?
To read all the exchanges, OPEN HERE
