Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Deferred
BECCS considered essential for UK decarbonisation, despite reduced projected role by 2050.
Conclusion
Combining power generation using sustainably sourced biomass with carbon capture and storage (CCUS) has the potential to generate ‘negative emissions’–i.e. it could reduce the overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.65 Both the government and the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on how best to achieve its decarbonisation goals, believe that BECCS will be essential for the UK 58 Letter from Drax, 17 March 2025 59 Q 42 60 Q 3 61 Q 3 and Drax Power, Response to CCC Bioenergy Review: call for evidence, December 2018, p 1 62 Q 71 63 Q 1 64 Q 71 65 C&AG’s Report, para 2 16 to achieve its decarbonisation goals from Carbon Budget 6 and beyond.66 The CCC recently provided new advice to government, which set out a reduced role for BECCS in 2050 compared to its earlier forecasts, but does still see BECCS as an essential part of the UK’s decarbonisation efforts by generating 25 million tonnes of negative carbon emissions per year (roughly half the amount suggested in its previous advice).67
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that BECCS is important and states that a forthcoming report, compliant with a High Court Order and the Climate Change Act 2008, will address policies and proposals to meet carbon budgets. They have also commissioned an Independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals to consider how BECCS can assist in meeting net zero targets.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2025 4.2 The department’s analysis suggests power BECCS technologies are part of a cost- effective pathway to meeting the UK’s climate change targets. Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies (GGRs) like BECCS can support net zero targets by delivering negative carbon emissions and producing low-carbon electricity, hydrogen, or fuels. 4.3 The department will publish a report setting out its plan to meet carbon budgets, in compliance with the High Court’s Court Order and Section 14 of the Climate Change Act 2008, in due course. The plan will set out the policies and proposals needed to meet Carbon Budgets 4-6 and the government’s Nationally Determined Contributions, on the pathway to net zero by 2050. 4.4 The Secretary of State has commissioned an Independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals, led by Dr Alan Whitehead, which will consider how GGRs including BECCS can assist the UK in meeting the government’s net zero targets. The review is not centred on any particular project and will consider all GGRs, with a focus on engineered GGR approaches, which includes those that are reliant on the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) transport and storage network, as well as those engineered approaches that are not.