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Ministers must commit to a clear strategy for carbon capture and storage (CCS) or risk missing the climate change targets agreed at the Paris COP21 summit, a report by the energy and climate change committee has warned.
The report, released today (Wednesday), says if the government does not come up with a clear strategy soon, “knowledge, investment, assets and expertise in the UK will all be lost.” It warns that this would make it more challenging and expensive for the UK to meet its international climate change commitments.
The committee’s chair, Angus MacNeil, said: “[Decc] must devise a strategy to ensure carbon capture and storage technology can start delivering carbon savings by the 2020s.
“Only last week ministers rejected the need for such a strategy, but the industry and investors are crying out for this certainty.”
It follows a last minute decision in November to pull the plug on a £1 billion competition to develop CCS, which damaged the relationship between the government, the industry and investors, according to the report.
MacNeil said: “The first hint one company had about the decision was when they read a news report the night before. This is the latest in a series of snap decisions that have damaged confidence in the government’s energy policy.”
The report calls for a number of issues to be addressed in the strategy, including whether contracts for difference will be available in the next levy control framework and which new gas plants Decc expects to be retrofitted with CCS.
“Getting the infrastructure in place takes time and the government needs to ensure that we can start fitting gas fired power stations with carbon capture and storage technology in the 2020s,” said MacNeil.
The report says the strategy should also examine the risk of access to North Sea storage sites being lost as oil and gas assets are decommissioned and the lessons that can be learned from the White Rose and Peterhead projects.
It further recommends that Decc work with the National Infrastructure Commission to explore options for the development of CO2 transport and storage.
MacNeil added: “If the Government is committed to the climate change pledges made in Paris, it cannot afford to sit back and simply wait and see if CCS will be deployed when it is needed.”
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