Energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng has revealed that the government is considering setting a target for storing carbon trapped through carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
In last month’s Budget, the government committed to deploy two CCS clusters by 2030 but has not yet published a target for the amount of carbon that it plans to store.
The BEIS select committee, in a report on CCS published last September, recommended that the government should set a target to store 10 million tonnes of carbon per annum by 2030, doubling again by 2035.
The target, which is in line with the Committee on Climate Change’s advice, equates to between 2.5 and 5 per cent of the UK’s current carbon emissions.
In a letter to the BEIS committee’s chair Rachel Reeves, who has just stepped down from the post to rejoin Labour’s front bench, Kwarteng wrote that the government was reviewing the recommended storage targets in the context of the upcoming energy white paper.
He revealed that the government is also assessing the report’s recommendation that the rollout of CCS clusters should be accelerated.
“We are currently assessing the Committee’s recommendations on delivery in the 2020s and the overall targets for CCUS by 2030 and 2035 in the context of the wider climate change initiatives such as the forthcoming energy white paper.”
The letter said that the government would be setting out its plans for CCS in further announcements throughout this year.
Kwarteng added that despite the “extraordinarily challenging circumstances” due to Covid-19, the energy white paper is still “very much a priority” for the government, which will provide an update on its publication plans “in due course”.
He also pledged that the government is still committed to the “vital steps” required to reach the UK’s 2050 net zero target and leading a new green industrial revolution.
And the letter states that the government intends to respond this spring to feedback on its consultation on CCS delivery and investment frameworks, which was published last July.
“However, given the significant challenges posed by covid-19 impacts that are constantly evolving, we are keeping the situation under careful review.”