Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 6
Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland
Published 10 Mar 2023
Paragraph 30
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)
We acknowledge the concerns raised by our witnesses around slippage in timings for hydrogen projects. This could delay the delivery of low carbon hydrogen projects and result in a failure to meet net zero targets. Urgency is required now; timely decision making will also mean Scotland and the rest of the UK do not get left behind with technology development and hydrogen production when compared to other countries’ hydrogen sectors. We recommend that the UK Government sets out how it will address concerns we have heard around timings of decisions for hydrogen projects, including justification for the timing of decisions and an assessment of the impact the timing of decisions will have for the delivery of low carbon hydrogen projects, net zero targets and Scotland—and the rest of the UK’s— international competitiveness in the sector.
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Hydrogen and carbon capture in Scotland (HC 83), paragraph 30, 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".