The government’s plan to spend nearly £22bn on carbon capture and storage (CCS) is misguided and wasteful.
Despite being promoted as a green initiative, CCS remains unproven at the scale needed to make a significant impact.
Studies, including one from Energy and Environmental Science, show that over 20 years, CCS captures only 10.8% of CO2 emissions and just 20-31% over 100 years.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis also highlights that CCS is costly, ineffective, and diverts focus from essential decarbonization efforts.
The oil and gas industries champion CCS because it allows them to continue profiting without real environmental responsibility.
Rather than transitioning away from fossil fuels, they use CCS to justify business as usual, placing future generations and the planet at risk.
Tidal power investment offers clean energy, reducing fossil fuel reliance without nuclear expansion.Moreover, CCS technology consumes vast amounts of energy, making it an inefficient solution to climate change.
Rather than capturing the tiny proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere, reducing emissions altogether is a far more effective strategy.
A wiser investment would be in renewable technologies such as tidal power, where Britain has significant untapped potential.
Extending the electrical distribution network along the coastlines could provide reliable, clean energy, create jobs, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels without the need for nuclear power expansion.
CCS has been in development for two decades, yet it has failed to deliver meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The main success stories involve using captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery, which benefits the fossil fuel industry more than the environment.
The government’s backing of CCS is more about supporting fossil fuels than a genuine green revolution.