Will carbon capture help the UK tackle climate change?

There is a lot of rousing rhetoric about carbon capture today after the government pledged to provide £21.7 billion of public funding over the next 25 years to boost the industry in the UK.

It says it will revitalize the country's industrial heart and help usher in a new era of clean energy.

But how much will this help the UK's efforts to tackle climate change – and is it worth the high price tag?

Carbon capture and storage sequesters carbon dioxide (CO2) produced in power plants and industrial processes at the source rather than escaping into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

The captured CO2 is then transported and stored, often deep underground.

This is slightly different from CO2 removal, which uses nature – such as planting trees – or machines to extract and store CO2 that is already in the air.

Carbon capture and storage technology has been around for decades, but the industry has struggled to really take off – both globally and in the UK.

According to the International Energy Agency, there are around 45 commercial carbon capture and storage facilities operating worldwide, collectively capturing more than 50 million tonnes of CO2 each year.

That may sound like a lot – but global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry currently amount to more than 35 billion tons per year.

Therefore, carbon capture currently has little impact on global CO2 emissions.

But both the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK's Climate Change Panel see the technology as part of efforts to reach net zero.

Why?

Put simply, the UK will continue to rely on polluting industries for decades to come, albeit to a much lesser extent.

As electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar continues to increase, Britain's reliance on fossil fuels for things like powering cars and heating homes is set to fall sharply.

But a small amount of gas will likely still be needed by 2035, the Committee on Climate Change says, to keep the lights on when renewable energy sources temporarily fail.

Carbon capture would help prevent this CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

The technology could be particularly important for decarbonizing some heavy industries, such as cement production, for which there are currently few obvious alternatives.

Many environmental groups support carbon capture for this purpose, but have expressed concern that it could give oil and gas companies an excuse to continue burning fossil fuels if not properly controlled.

The International Energy Agency expects carbon capture to increase significantly in the next few years – possibly to around 435 million tonnes per year worldwide by 2030, based on announced projects.

The UK has favorable geology for carbon storage in the North Sea and has a workforce with many of the required skills from the oil and gas industry.

Therefore, similar to the previous Conservative government, the government wants the UK to play a leading role in the race to capture carbon.

It hopes its £21.7bn funding – plus £8bn from private investment – ​​will help boost the industry in the UK.

The money will cover three carbon capture projects and two transport and storage projects at sites in Merseyside and Teesside.

The government hopes these funds will help overcome the fundamental economic – rather than technological – challenge of carbon capture: that it was cheaper for companies to emit the CO2 into the atmosphere.

It says it will incentivize companies to capture the carbon, with penalties for non-compliance.

“Over time the price of carbon will inevitably rise,” Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC News, referring to fees on polluters.

“But right now the right thing to do is to say, 'We're going to help these companies capture the carbon and give them a pathway,' and that's so important to the competitiveness of our industry.”

In March 2023, the Conservatives pledged £20 billion in funding over the next 20 years.

But Labor argues that they have not made these funds available nor stated where they should come from.

The aim is for these first projects to begin carbon capture and storage from 2028 and have a capacity of 8.5 million tonnes per year.

This would still be a small fraction of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, which were 384 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023, according to preliminary figures.

This highlights that carbon capture will be only one element of decarbonization.

However, the government hopes that this initial investment will help carbon capture become cheaper over time – similar to wind and solar power generation – and help the UK reach net zero at the same time secures jobs and investments.