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UK sets out strategy for climate action

Published by , Editor - Hydrocarbon Engineering
Hydrocarbon Engineering,


SCCS has welcomed the launch of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association’s (CCSA) new report highlighting 36 crucial lessons for industry and policy makers resulting from the UK’s cancelled Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Competition.

Despite entering a period of uncertainty in the UK across different sectors, following the referendum result on European Union membership, action on climate change remains an essential goal.

The UK Government is currently developing its Carbon Plan, which will describe a path towards achieving legally binding targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement on climate change also commits the UK to honouring a pledge to help contain global warming to within 2°C, or even 1.5°C.

Renewable energies and energy efficiency measures can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of electricity generation. But CCS remains the only option for harder to reach areas, such as industrial processes.

Prof Stuart Haszeldine, SCCS Director, said: “The CCSA’s Lessons Learned report highlights some key issues, which must be heeded if climate action is to succeed through the deployment of CCS.

“Under the terms of the UK CCS Competition, the Peterhead and White Rose projects suffered from having to bear full-chain costs. These pioneering projects should instead have been prized for unlocking essential CO2 transport and storage infrastructure that could decarbonise the industry, heat generation and transport sectors well into the future.

“After the abrupt withdrawal of CCS funding by the Treasury, subsequent government defence of this action cited its high cost. However, the CCSA’s evidence-based assessment finds the now cancelled projects and their projected costs to have been in line with the government's stated objectives and expectations.

“In particular, Peterhead is found to have been a unique opportunity ‘within the structure, risk allocation and terms of the Commercialisation programme’, an opportunity that ‘would seem unlikely to recur’. This is a huge strategic loss to the UK’s decarbonisation capability.

“Moreover, there has been huge damage to investor confidence in CCS, which remains a critical technology, according to the UK Committee on Climate Change, for power and industrial decarbonisation in line with the requirements of the UK Climate Change Act.”

The CCSA’s report highlights “no technical barriers to the delivery of CCS” but states that any future CCS programme will have to address a number of commercial challenges. The report also clearly shows that CCS “has significant potential for rapid cost reduction”.

With these key findings in mind, and access to other expert advice on achieving its Carbon Budgets, the UK government must now, without delay, present its vision for decarbonising the UK’s power, industry, heat and transport sectors in line with the requirements of the 2008 Climate Change Act.

The CCSA published its report, Lessons Learned – Lessons and Evidence Derived from UK CCS Programmes, 2008 - 2015, on Wednesday 29 June 2016, on the same day as jointly hosting a workshop with the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). This event is looking into the role of CCS in meeting global climate ambitions following the Paris COP21 Conference. More details from CCSA can be found here and, from CSLF, here.


Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/the-environment/29062016/uk-sets-out-strategy-for-climate-action-3609/

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