Media Releases
UK Committee on Climate Change highlights crucial role for carbon capture and storage in achieving a net-zero target in the UK
2nd May 2019
The Global CCS Institute welcomes the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) report, which recommends that the UK commits to cutting its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2050 and highlights the crucial role carbon capture and storage (CCS) needs to play to achieve this goal. The long-awaited CCC report says: “CCS is a necessity and not an option.”
The report recognises that reaching net-zero GHG emissions in the UK will require important contributions from CCS in industry, for hydrogen production, combined with bioenergy (e.g. for power generation) and in flexible fossil-fired power generation, with up to 75-175 MtCO₂ being captured and stored annually by 2050.
The CCC recommends that CO₂ infrastructure development should start as early as possible, with the first CCS cluster being operational by 2026 and four more following soon after, with at least one of these clusters producing substantial amounts of low-carbon hydrogen. As such, it identifies the development of relevant CO2 infrastructure as an important policy priority.
Welcoming the report, Guloren Turan, General-Manager Advocacy and Communications at the Global CCS Institute said:
“This report is very timely and we hope that it will be an important impetus to government, industry and other stakeholders to accelerate their efforts to deploy CCS facilities and develop CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. There are many promising CCS projects in the pipeline across the UK that can bring considerable value for communities and industry.”
There are currently 43 large-scale CCS facilities operating or under development around the world. In the UK, there are six CCS facilities in early development: Acorn CCS, Caledonia Clean Energy, HyNet North West, H21 North of England, Teesside Collective, and BECCS pilot plant at Drax Power Station. Several of these facilities also involve hydrogen production.
You can read the full report here.