Recommendation 17

The Department began developing its current approach to CCUS in 2018, following two previous failures.58 The Climate Change Committee, which advises government on how best to meet its decarbonisation goals, considers CCUS to be essential for the UK to meet its legally binding climate ambitions, in Carbon Budget 6 (which covers 2033–37) and to achieve net zero by 2050.59 In October 2021, the Department set its ambitions for the CCUS programme based on its own assessment of how to meet these goals: to have two carbon capture clusters operational by the mid–2020s and four operational by 2030; for these clusters to capture 20–30 mtpa of carbon by 2030; to have at least one power station with CCUS running by 2030; and to capture at least 5 mtpa of carbon through engineered greenhouse gas removals by 2030.60