Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland
Published 10 Mar 2023
Paragraph 27
Addressed to Scotland Office
Scottish Affairs Committee Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The UK and Scottish Governments arrived at their respective 10GW and 5GW by 2030 low carbon hydrogen production targets independently of each other, and we are unclear how the two targets align and whether either is achievable. Clarity on this is vitally important given the targets must be reached in just seven years’ time. We recommend that the UK and Scottish Governments, in response to this report, explain how they arrived at their respective 10GW and 5GW by 2030 low carbon hydrogen production targets and how the two targets align. Furthermore, the two Governments should provide us with a proposed timeline setting out key milestones on the road towards the respective targets to assist us and our successor committees in judging progress and evaluating the achievability of Scotland’s hydrogen production targets.
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland (HC 83), paragraph 27, 10 March 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 8 June 2023 (deadline 1 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees that the UK and Scottish Governments have clear hydrogen strategies and that close joint working matters on exports, while setting out its own delivery plans and declining to comment on recommendations addressed to the Scottish Government on devolved matters.
- On targets, the government calls up to 10GW of low carbon hydrogen by 2030, "subject to affordability and value for money", "a stretching but deliverable ambition". It says the Scottish 5GW ambition "does not have a formal relationship" to the UK-wide figure.
- It commits to a hydrogen production delivery roadmap, "to be published by the end of the year", and plans a second electrolytic allocation round "later in 2023".
- On carbon capture, it describes CCUS as "a priority" and says it intends to "provide an update on next steps for Track-2 in the summer". It reports over £40m of development funding allocated to the Scottish cluster.
- On hydrogen storage, it commits to designing a storage business model "by 2025". On hydrogen-ready boilers, it is analysing consultation responses on a 2026 requirement and "will issue the Government response in due course".