Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
8th Report - Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage
Published 7 Feb 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Department has downgraded its ambitions for the CCUS programme, stating that the original 2030 ambitions are no longer achievable. The current CCUS programme is the government’s third attempt to introduce the technology. Compared with previous attempts, the government is now more reliant on CCUS succeeding as it sees the technology as essential to achieving net zero by 2050. But over the course of the CCUS programme’s development, the Department has reduced its expectations of the carbon that will be captured and stored by the first wave of projects, known as Track 1. Its progress has also been slower than planned: the government recently agreed financial terms with two projects in the East Coast Cluster, around two years later than scheduled. In December 2024, the Department concluded that its target to capture 20 to 30 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030 will not be met. It has yet to announce revised targets for the programme. The 2030 ambitions for the CCUS programme were aligned with the government’s pathway for meeting the decarbonisation goals for Carbon Budget 6 (2033–2037). As these targets have now been abandoned, it is not clear by what alternative means government will meet these legally binding goals. 7 recommendation a. The Department should set out, as a matter of urgency, new targets for how much carbon it intends to capture through its CCUS programme and by when, and make clear how it will make up the shortfall created in its overall net zero pathway. b. The Department should consider how it will monitor and report on the performance of CCUS projects in relation to the amount of net carbon captured. 8 1 Protecting taxpayers and consumers interests Introduction
From: Public Accounts Committee, 8th Report - Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (HC 351), 7 February 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighth report from Session 2024-25
Published 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations across the areas covered, while saying that for annual reappraisal of value for money its process is "ongoing, dictated by the project pipeline, rather than a fixed annual schedule".
- On annual reappraisal of value for money, the government says it agrees with the recommendation but reviews the approach "primarily" via the Business Case process, ahead of final investment decisions, and not on a fixed annual schedule.
- The government acknowledges that the 2030 ambition of capturing and storing 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per year "is no longer achievable", and will publish a report setting out its plan to meet carbon budgets, with a target implementation date of Spring 2025.
- On BECCS, biomass sustainability criteria "will be developed" for any future support, and the department "plans to consult later this year" on a common biomass sustainability framework. Target implementation date: Summer 2025.
- On sharing financial benefits, the government notes the business models already have mechanisms, such as a "gainshare" mechanism in the Net Zero Teesside agreement, and will "continue to evolve" them. Target implementation date: December 2026.