Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 24
Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector
Published 28 Apr 2023
Paragraph 121
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Decarbonisation of the power sector All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government’s recent confirmation of £20 billion investment over 20 years for the early development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is welcome, allowing the implementation of the initial clusters to commence. However, none of this £20 billion is reflected in the formal budget policy costings, so it is unclear how it will be raised. The Government will need to come forward promptly with clarity for projects involved in the Track 1 expansion and Track 2 clusters. We recommend that the Government announces the cluster sequencing Track-1 expansion projects as quickly as possible and provides further detail on the forward timeline for selecting the next CCS clusters that need to be operational this decade. We urge the Government to provide clarity on how the £20 billion for the early development of CCS will be funded. The Government should develop a robust regulatory regime that tests the carbon capture rates of CCS facilities and penalises failure, which in turn should drive innovation.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector (HC 283), paragraph 121, 28 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 July 2023 (deadline 28 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, planning annual reporting on power sector decarbonisation while setting out where it will not adopt specific proposals.
- On the call for a long-term delivery plan, the government "plans to report on its delivery, and overall plan to deliver the commitment, on an annual basis", and is strengthening its portfolio management approach.
- On a UK-wide onshore wind target, it states that setting one "would potentially undermine the flexibility needed" across the UK.
- On biomass, it has "no plans to remove support prior to 2027" for stations already supported, saying they "have a statutory right to their existing support".
- On Ofgem's duties, it is "content to amend" Ofgem's existing duty on greenhouse gases to refer specifically to the net zero targets in the Climate Change Act 2008.