UK’s £21.7 billion funding for carbon capture and storage projects is a significant step forward for a critical climate mitigation technology
The UK government has committed to an ambitious funding package for carbon capture and storage (CCS), totaling up to £21.7 billion over 25 years. The first two regional cluster projects supported by the funding could mitigate up to 8.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, or around 16% of the UK’s CO2 emissions from industry and waste.
The majority of the funding is expected to support ‘contract for difference’ schemes, which the government has developed to cover additional costs borne by the facilities to clean up their emissions. Some of the funding may also be allocated to building the infrastructure necessary to transport and store carbon dioxide.
“This long-term investment should be money well spent, as without carbon capture and storage these facilities would have continued adding millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for years to come,” said Toby Lockwood, Technology and Markets Director for CCS at Clean Air Task Force. “With the cost of carbon emissions set to rise, it makes sense to invest in technologies which can make these industries compatible with our climate targets, rather than sit back as they are ultimately forced to shut down.”
“There is ample scientific evidence that returning billions of tonnes of CO2 to the earth will be an essential part of global efforts to fight climate change, and the necessary technologies are already available today,” said Rebecca Tremain, Director of UK Policy at Clean Air Task Force. “As more European countries commit to funding CCS, the UK’s significant support for the technology will help maintain the country’s climate leadership and industrial competitiveness, while bringing down the cost of future projects for the UK and others.”
Details of the clusters
Selected through a competitive process in 2021, the HyNet project covers a cement plant, an oil refinery, and energy-from-waste plants in north-west England and Wales, while the East Coast Cluster includes hydrogen production facilities and a gas power plant near Teesside. CO2 extracted from the facilities’ waste gases will be collected via pipelines and taken to offshore storage sites, where it can be permanently stored in deep rock formations below the seabed.
Included in the HyNet cluster, the Padeswood cement plant represents an industry which is dependent on CCS to decarbonise. Cement plants contribute over 6% of global emissions, and 6.4 million tonnes of CO2 in the UK, so there is an urgent need to develop technologies to clean up the sector. The two energy-from-waste plants selected in the region are also reliant on CCS to clean up their emissions, and the number of these facilities in the UK continues to grow. At the Stanlow oil refinery, CCS will be used in the conversion of waste gases to hydrogen, providing a low-carbon fuel to replace the fossil fuels used by the refinery and surrounding industries.
The Teesside project includes BP and Equinor’s ‘Net Zero Teesside Power’ gas-fired power plant, which will be newly built with CCS. While the rapid rise of offshore wind is making a huge contribution to the UK’s efforts to decarbonise power generation, gas power is expected to remain vital to the grid, and planned new facilities should use CCS rather than continue burning gas unabated.
Find out more about CCS:
- Carbon capture and storage: What can we learn from the project track record? – Clean Air Task Force
- France and Austria release ambitious carbon management strategies to combat climate change
- Cattura e stoccaggio del carbonio
Contatto con la stampa
Julia Kislitsyna, Responsabile Comunicazione, Europa,[email protected],+49 151 16220453
Circa Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With more than 25 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. Visit cleanairtaskforce.org and follow @cleanaircatf
