Following the abrupt withdrawal of £1 billion CCS funding by the UK treasury, Whitehall now has to set out its ‘Carbon Plan’ to explain how it will meet targets set in the Paris Agreement without capturing carbon from fossil power plants. Today, CSSA detailed ‘36 lessons-learned’ from UK CCS programmes – a retrospective. Scotland’s SCCS warned any alternative climate action might cost even more dearly.
Though the Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage (SCCS) acknowledged today’s report on ‘36 lessons-learned’ from the cancelled CCS Competition, Prof Stuart Haszeldine commented that “after the abrupt withdrawal of CCS funding by the Treasury, subsequent government defence of this action cited its high cost.”
“However, 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.”
Strategic loss for Britain’s CCS capability
Peterhead, in particular, is found by the government retrospective report 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’.
Investor confidence has also been damaged by the cancellation of pilot programmes – yet, today’s report might indicate a U-turn in policy makers’ perception: The latest 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,” Prof Haszeldine underlined.
Drawing from ‘36 lessons-learned’, the Scottish CCS Association states that 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.
Though embroiled in multiple matters since last week's Brexit vote, the British government today confirmed its intention to develop a new approach to CCS. Time will tell how much will come of it.