I do not think the government should allocate £20 bn to CCUS when competitors are not going this route and it is extra cost on UK production via tax.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (187010):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much the Government plans to spend on carbon (a) capture and (b) storage this year. (187010)
Tabled on: 02 June 2023
Answer:
Graham Stuart:
The 2021 Spending Review allocated £0.3bn to Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) for FY23/24. This funding supports the Government’s ambition for CCUS in four industrial clusters by 2030. On 15 March 2023 the Chancellor announced an up to £20 billion investment in the early development of CCUS and, on 30 March, the Government announced the eight HyNet and East Coast Cluster projects to proceed to negotiations for support through the relevant Business Models. Following this, the Government expects some adjustment to the timing of spend to reflect the pace of deployment.
The answer was submitted on 12 Jun 2023 at 13:48.
June 15, 2023
I agree with JR. What a ridiculous waste of money.
£20bn could do some good if it was left in taxpayers’ pockets or not “printed” out of thin air only to jack up inflation.
June 15, 2023
What competitors choose to do is a matter for them. What is best for us is our choice irrespective of copying anyone else. £20bn is immense expenditure. Too much of what Govt does wastes.
June 15, 2023
This plan for clusters of reorganised industry powered by hydrogen made from reforming methane and dumping the carbon dioxide into old gas fields is all in the Climate Change Committee technical report. It’s energy inefficient as half is lost, it needs twice as much natural gas to produce the same energy and the gas industry is paid for selling it and pumping the CO2 back under the sea. Industry will be unable to compete with China and other less zealous countries.
June 15, 2023
90% of the world is increasing their CO2 production, for theforeseeable future and the UK is spending 20 bn on trying to capture it.
Completely pointless and daft.
June 16, 2023
Please ask the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero how they justify spending £20bn+ on the CCUS project which will reduce global anthropogenic CO2 emissions by 0.01% per annum, whilst China, India and many other countries are emitting increasing amounts of CO2 each year.
And the UN itself only consider “climate action” as number 13 in its list of “Sustainable Development Goals”.
June 16, 2023
At the present rate of progress 9n energy policy I can foresee an emergency investment programme in diesel generators and CCGT plant as the premature closure of dispatchable capacity and the failure of renewables to be an adequate replacement catches up with it. Exactly this is now happening in Ireland. There won’t be money for CCS. In fact, the whole net zero schema will fall apart as it becomes clearer how unaffordable it is.
I noted Sunak boasted of 160 unicorns in the UK. Does he not understand that energy unicorns are imaginary policies that are destined to fail?