The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee has called on DECC to publish a new strategy for CCS by the summer.
The ECCC said the UK’s decision to pull funding for CCS demonstration projects will delay the development of the technology and make it challenging for the UK to meet its climate change commitments agreed at last year’s Paris COP21 summit.
As well as a new strategy for CCS and gas, the report recommends that DECC reports on the UK’s abandoned CCS competition in the first quarter of 2016.
The ECCC also called for DECC to urgently facilitate discussions between UK developers, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to keep the NER 300 or other European CCS funding in the UK.
The ECCC also suggests DECC engages with the National Infrastructure Commission to explore options for the development of CO2 transport and storage and for the NIC to consult on whether developing CCS infrastructure should be one of its priority areas.
ECCC chair Angus MacNeil said: “If the government is committed to the climate change pledges made in Paris, it cannot afford to sit back and simply wait and see if CCS will be deployed when it is needed.
“Getting the infrastructure in place takes time and the Government needs to ensure that we can start fitting gas fired power stations with carbon capture and storage technology in the 2020s.”
DECC denied it has “closed the door” to CCS in the UK. A spokesman said: “As part of our ongoing work to get Britain’s finances back on track, we have had to take difficult decisions to control government spending.
“CCS should come down in cost and we are considering the role that it could play in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK. We are committed to meeting our climate change targets in a way that is affordable and provides secure energy to our families and businesses.”
Commenting on the report, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit director Richard Black said: “Although it may look a bit pricey up-front, CCS can play a very significant role in solving the energy ‘trilemma’.
“Cancelling it shows the folly of basing energy policy on short-term concerns about affordability – especially at a time when energy bills are falling.”
Image: CCS plant (Energy Technologies Institute)
