Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 30
30
Deferred
Paragraph: 138
Establish robust contingency plans for BECCS viability and avoid unproven carbon removal technologies
Recommendation
We urge the Government to ensure that there is a robust contingency plan in place if BECCS proves unviable, either in terms of its sustainability or efficiency. We urge the Government not to rely upon unproven technologies at the expense of other simpler and cheaper approaches, which could be taken now, such as deploying measures to Decarbonisation of the power sector 105 reduce energy demand.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response details its commitment to accelerate new electricity network capacity, manage grid constraints, and implement strategic network planning, without addressing the recommendation for a BECCS contingency plan.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
138
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
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.
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