Reeves says BEIS is ‘rowing back’ on CCUS pledges

The chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee has accused the government of “rowing back on” previous commitments to carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS).

Rachel Reeves has written to energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng demanding to know whether the department will pledge to enable CCUS commission by 2023, as the committee recommended in its April report.

The government’s response to that report, published last week, “barely engages with the arguments” according to Reeves, and failed to signal any concrete action. She also took issue with secretary of state Andrea Leadsom’s response to her letter pressing for action on a series of policy fronts such as CCUS, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency.

The committee’s report noted that, “although the UK has one of the most favourable environments globally for CCUS, the technology has suffered 15 years of turbulent policy support, including the cancellation of two major competitions at a late stage”. It pointed out that no commercial-scale plant for CCUS has yet been constructed in the UK.

In answer to the committee’s demands to accelerate the delivery of CCUS projects, the government referred to a consultation launched in July on the potential opportunities in re-using existing infrastructure to progress CCUS at lower cost.

The committee also recommended that a specific target of storing 10 million tonnes by 2030 and 20 million by 2035 was set.

On that point, the government responded: “Our ambition for CCUS remains that the UK should have the option to deploy CCUS at scale during the 2030s and the first critical step to achieving this is through our commitment to deploy the UK’s first CCUS facility from the mid-2020s.”

Reeves said: “The secretary of state is happy to reiterate the government’s commitment to net-zero by 2050 but fails to give any sense that her government is dedicated to the urgent actions necessary to achieve it.

“It’s easy to set a target. The harder challenge is putting in place the measures needed to get to net-zero by 2050. Unfortunately, the secretary of state’s letter gives little confidence that the government has a clear idea of the policies it wants to pursue to make UK net-zero carbon emissions a reality. Given the UK is hosting COP26 next year, it’s important that we provide international leadership by getting our act together at home on climate change policy.

“It’s encouraging that the Treasury’s review will look at the benefits, as well as the costs, of net zero. Ending the UK’s contribution to climate change has the potential for major health and environmental benefits. It is also crucial the Treasury examines where costs will fall, how the transition can be funded, and how to manage the impacts on bill-payers, motorists and carbon-intensive industries.

“The minister’s response to our CCUS report is very disappointing and sits in contrast to the initial enthusiasm to our findings displayed by the previous minister, Claire Perry. The government’s response barely engages with the specific recommendations of our report and it is worrying that the government now appears to be rowing back on previous commitments. This must be concerning for industry and investors and I hope the government will rethink its approach and come forward with a clearer indication of what it is doing to ensure CCUS technology is able to deliver on its potential.”