Asked by
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?
(GP)
I will send the Minister a manifesto.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister has just confirmed that no commercial
plants are yet operational in Britain. Is the Government’s plan
to capture 20 million to 30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 not
therefore unachievable? Why are the Government subsidising this
with £1 billion, at the expense of proven renewables?
(Con)
It is not one or the other; we need to do both. Of course we need
to push ahead with renewables, and I have set out many times in
this House how well we are doing. Almost 60% of electricity in
the last quarter was delivered by renewables, but CCUS is also
essential. We have committed £20 billion-worth of funding to CCUS
over the next few years because everybody thinks it essential to
meeting our goals. It also offers a massive export opportunity
for this country, as we have expertise in many of these
technologies. The estimate is that capturing 20 million to 30
million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 could deliver up to 50,000 jobs,
many of them in our industrial heartlands.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Government have only recently entered negotiations
with track 1 clusters, despite the climate investment fund being
announced three years ago. They have earmarked £0.3 billion of
the £1 billion fund for this financial year. This does not leave
much time for negotiating. Are the Government concerned that this
deadline, caused by their own delays, will impact on their
negotiating position? Is the Government’s priority using this
money well or simply using it?
(Con)
My Lords, this makes me think that we cannot win on this. One
part of the Opposition does not want to award these contracts at
all and the Labour Party thinks we should have done it earlier.
The reality is that we are proceeding with negotiations. It is
our aim to have the contracts let for the first 10 projects by
quarter 3 of next year. This is a really exciting technology, but
we need to do the negotiations properly and get maximum value for
money for the taxpayer from what is an emerging new industry.
(Con)
Can my noble friend bring the House up to date on the
Government’s support for tidal power?
(Con)
My noble friend is dogged in his pursuit of this, and I have
answered his question before. As he knows, under the last
contracts for difference round, a number of tidal projects were
successful in receiving funding.
