CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce publishes report to Government

The report sets out the opportunity and value that CCUS delivers across the UK economy and emphasises the need for urgency to enable CCUS to fulfil its role in achieving the lowest-cost route to meeting the UK’s statutory climate change targets.

The overall conclusion of the Taskforce, which was chaired by Charlotte Morgan, Energy and Infrastructure partner at Linklaters, is that CCUS meets the three commitments set out in the Clean Growth Strategy; reducing emissions in the most cost-effective way, maximising innovation and making the UK a global technology leader. The UK is uniquely placed to grasp the CCUS opportunity, with the potential to develop a large export market delivering significant economic benefits for the UK.

The report recommends a number of key actions and messages, including:

• A minimum of two CCUS clusters (incorporating capture plants and CO2 stores) operational from the mid-2020s.
• The development of CCUS clusters delivers value across the UK economy by enabling low-carbon industries and electricity as well as unlocking other benefits such as decarbonised hydrogen for heating, greenhouse gas removal and carbon dioxide utilisation.
• The development of a new business model for CO2 transport and storage, separate from that which is used for the capture plant.

Dr Luke Warren, chief executive of the CCSA, commented: “After six months of intense discussions between a number of key CCUS stakeholders, the message from today’s report is clear: CCUS can already be deployed at a competitive cost, through the development of CCUS clusters in key UK regions. These clusters could support clean growth across the UK economy whilst retaining and creating high-value jobs in some of the UK’s most important industries.

“The Government has committed to publishing a CCUS Deployment Pathway by the end of 2018. The next five – six months therefore represent a crucial period for CCUS. It is imperative that industry and Government now work together to ensure that the recommendations set out in today’s report are taken forward and reflected in a strong and ambitious new approach to CCUS.”

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