Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Deferred
Paragraph: 103
UK nuclear power projects consistently face significant cost overruns and protracted delays.
Conclusion
The British Energy Security Strategy set an ambition for the UK to deploy 24 GW of civil nuclear power by 2050. This significantly raised the level of the Government’s ambition on nuclear power, above estimates suggested by the Climate Change Committee and others. But to be an effective part of a low-carbon, secure and affordable electricity mix, the cost of nuclear power must come down. Nuclear projects in the UK and elsewhere have been beset with delays and overspends.
Government Response Summary
The government's response highlights the importance of Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs) like BECCS for net zero and outlines deployment ambitions, ignoring the conclusion about nuclear power costs.
Paragraph Reference:
103
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
65. Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) technologies, including BECCS, will be essential for reaching net zero—balancing residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors while providing new economic opportunities as part of the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution. The Government’s priority is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities and to only use GGRs to mitigate remaining GHG emissions that are unavoidable. Decarbonisation of the power sector: Government Response 13 66. This recognition of the importance of GGRs to meet net zero both internationally and domestically has been supported by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change3 (IPCC) and the Climate Change Committee (CCC)2. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), in their Sixth Carbon Budget Report, set out that BECCS technologies can play a significant role in supporting net zero targets through the delivery of negative carbon emissions. 67. The Net Zero Strategy set out an ambition to deploy at least 5 MtCO2 of engineered greenhouse gas removals per year by 2030. Modelling to inform the Net Zero Strategy suggests that by 2050, engineered removals at a large scale, between 75 and 81 MtCO2/ year, will be needed to help compensate residual emissions. 68. Government policy framework will aim to support a diverse portfolio of GGR technologies to achieve commercialisation. The Government believes this will be essential to reduce reliance on any single technology, allow innovative and highly scalable solutions to demonstrate cost reductions, and spur the growth of a robust competitive market that can support decarbonisation at the lowest cost to business while maximising the benefits to the UK economy. 69. There are around 35 commercial facilities applying CCUS to industrial processes, fuel transformation and power generation globally, with a total annual capture capacity of almost 45 Mt CO23. Although BECCS and DACCS are not operating at scale in the UK, given current barriers to commercial deployment, they are operating elsewhere globally (such as Canada and Norway) in demonstration plants, and carbon capture technology is operational at commercial scale.