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The United Kingdom’s government committed nearly £22 billion to two carbon capture clusters on Merseyside and Teesside over the next 25 years. These projects aim to support the UK’s climate goals, create thousands of jobs, and attract private investment. According to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the carbon capture, utilisation, and storage facilities represent a “game-changing technology” that would add 4,000 well-paying jobs and billions of pounds in private investment to Merseyside and Teesside.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who first announced plans to develop carbon capture projects for power plants in 2009, said the project was “essential if we are to decarbonise without industrialising.” The initiative would protect against the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes and power stations into the environment. Most of the CO2 produced would be captured, transported and then stored deep underground. This is an essential measure needed to reduce greenhouse gases and decarbonise the UK’s energy industry.
Up to £21.7 billion of funding would subsidise three projects on Teesside and Merseyside to support the development of the clusters, including infrastructure to transport and store carbon. The support would also cover two transport and storage networks carrying captured carbon to deep geological storage in Liverpool Bay and the North Sea. According to officials, this would remove 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, while providing industry with the confidence to invest in the UK, directly creating 4,000 jobs, and supporting 50,000 in the long term. The projects are scheduled to begin storing captured carbon from 2028.
However, some green campaigners expressed concern that the investment would “extend the life of planet-heating oil and gas production.” Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, called for spending on offshore wind or nationwide home insulation instead of “extending the life of the fossil fuel industry.” Friends of the Earth agreed, stating that the government should focus on insulating people’s homes. Miliband, on the other hand, challenged critics, asking what the “alternative was to carbon capturing.” He suggested that the UK required “all the technologies at [its] disposal” since the “backbone of our system will be renewables.”
The Merseyside and Teesside projects comprise part of a series of initiatives announced in 2023 to capture and store 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030. Besides, it is a significant move towards achieving the UK’s net-zero emissions goal
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