UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday unveiled his £12bn 10-point plan, highlighting the significant role that carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen will play in a green industrial revolution.
To help place the UK at the global forefront of carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), the plan proposes an extra £200m of new funding to create two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, with another two set to be created by 2030.
The new capital dedicated to CCUS increases the total invested to £1bn, benefiting regions with industries that are particularly difficult to decarbonise and supporting up to 50,000 jobs.
If successful, the PM’s CCUS efforts will remove 10-megatonnes of CO2 by 2030, equivalent to taking four million cars off the road. In order to achieve such ambitions, the Government has laid out target milestones which are to be completed in the following years:
2021: Execute a process for CCUS deployment, working in collaboration with industry and set out further details of a revenue mechanism for industrial carbon capture and hydrogen projects
2022: New CCUS business models finalised
2030: Two clusters operational by the mid 2020s, subject to relevant value for money and affordability considerations and a further two clusters operational by 2030
Further to its CCUS commitments, the plan also proposes to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes, and aims to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.
Such hydrogen developments will be supported by up to £500m in funding as part of the 10-point plan, £240m of which will go into new hydrogen production facilities.
Additionally, the Prime Minister has brought forward the ban on new petrol and diesel cars by ten years to 2030, meaning only zero emission vehicles, like hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), will be sold in the UK after that year.
The Government also said it will bring forward details in 2021 of a revenue mechanisms to bring through private sector investment into industrial carbon capture and hydrogen projects via its new business models.
Commenting on the launch, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said, “Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. My Ten Point Plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050.”
“Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.
