The U.K. government, after facing a backlash for scrapping a carbon capture and storage commercialization program, has pledged to develop an updated CCS plan by the end of 2016, Minister of State at Department of Energy and Climate Change Andrea Leadsom said Monday in the House of Commons.
“I recognize that industry and others are keen for the government to set out its approach to CCS as soon as possible and … the government will do this by the end of 2016,” the minister said in comments related to the energy bill currently under consideration in the U.K.
The government ended the £1 million CCS competition in November, leaving two large-scale projects in a lurch: Royal Dutch Shell’s Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and the White Rose CCS Project in Yorkshire, managed by the Capture Power consortium. Both are now on hold.
In subsequent months, a number of government officials have flagged the high cost of CCS as the official reason for the competition’s termination. “The government’s view remains that CCS has a potentially important role to play in the long-term decarbonization of the U.K.’s industrial and power sectors, in the long-term competitiveness of energy intensive industries, and in the longevity of North Sea industries,” Leadsom said, reiterating the government claim that the program’s end does not reflect the government’s view of the technology.
“However, we know that currently CCS costs are high, which is why we remain committed to working with industry to bring forward innovative ideas for reducing the costs of this potentially important technology,” Leadsom said
News Laws Needed to Meet Paris Agreement
Leadsom also addressed the Paris climate agreement adopted in December. Under the agreement close to 200 nations are to work together to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and achieve greenhouse has neutrality by the end of the century.
The U.K.’s current climate and energy policies, while ambitious, are not in line with that goal, Leadsom said. “The government believes that we will need to take the step of enshrining the Paris goal for net zero emissions in U.K. law.”
However, she went on, the nation should not rush into this. “The question is not whether, but how we do it, and there is an important set of questions to be answered before we do,” according to Leadsom, noting a need to ensure cost-effective compliance with the Paris Agreement. The minister did not note any specific policy measures that might be considered.
