UK GOVERNMENT FUNDS FOUR CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE CLUSTERS
Plans to inject an extra £200 million into factories to assist with the task of burying carbon dioxide deep underground. The UK government has invested several hundred million pounds in carbon capture and storage technology as part of a new 10-point action plan to tackle climate change. This is to assist with the commitment the UK has made to reduce its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050. The UK government is the first to implement laws to restrict industrial carbon emissions.
As part of the plan to reduce emissions the UK government plan to put a ban on the sale of new fossil fuel reliant vehicles, both petrol and diesel cars and vans, by 2030. This is five years ahead of schedule. There are plans for the instillation of more offshore wind power facilities to increase power capacity fourfold. Greenpeace, the environmental lobby group, called the proposed ban on fossil fuelled vehicles, “a landmark announcement… and a historic turning point on climate action.”
New technologies such as those used in carbon capture systems are so expensive that no company wants to shoulder the cost alone, that is why these government funds are so important. Additional funding provides companies the oppertunity to develop and implement these technologies. One of the projects to receive a portion of the £200 million is net-zero Teesside, located in the north east of England. The project is being developed by oil companies including BP, ENI, Equinor, Shell and Total, with BP leading as operator.
Carbon capture systems (CCS) will be used to capture and compress the CO2 emissions released by the industrial sector in Teesside and transport it via a series of pre-existing pipelines to be injected into depleted oil reservoirs located out in the North Sea, up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 could be stored by 2030. The same CCS system will be implemented at three other sites across the UK. This will drastically reduce the carbon emissions released by industrial sectors in these areas.