The most disappointing decision the United Kingdom’s Conservative government has made in the energy sector was its decision to end the nation’s £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, according to a report issued Friday by the U.K. Trades Union Congress. “The TUC believes this decision was a huge mistake. The question, however, is what to do now,” the report says.
The U.K. announced during a spending review on Nov. 25, 2015, the official cancellation of its CCS Commercialization competition, effectively forcing the closure of the two projects remaining the running: Shell’s Peterhead and Capture Power’s White Rose. “The TUC believes the previous government pulled the plug on a new and exciting technology purely to cut costs, rather than seeing CCS as an investment in our industrial and environmental future,” the report says.
Last month the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, a decision that resulted in the resignation of then-PM David Cameron. Cameron has been replaced by Theresa May.
To remedy the situation, the labor organization said, the nation should reach out to other countries for cooperation. The report notes that many ministers have shown a continued commitment to getting CCS off the ground. “It is necessary for the new Prime Minister to show similar commitment, given that her predecessor questioned the viability of CCS technology. However, assuming this hurdle can be overcome, the TUC calls on the government to put together an international consortium to finance a CCS project, sharing both the risks and the rewards,” the report says.
