The government commits billions of pounds in “unproven” green technology to reduce warming gases from the planet without considering the impact on consumers’ bills, deputies warned.
Capture, use and storage facilities (CCU) of carbon prevent carbon dioxide, produced by industry, released in the atmosphere by capturing it and storing it underground.
In October, the government has promised nearly 22 billion pounds sterling for CCUS facilities and three -quarters of money will be collected by consumption bills.
But Friday, the Committee of Public Accounts of the House of Commons raised serious concerns that the government had not correctly assessed the financial impact on households and businesses.
“It is an unproven technology, certainly in this country. And we fear that this policy will have a very significant effect on consumer and industry electricity bills,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, president of Committee of Public Accounts, a group committee of inter-party deputies which examines public spending.
The government said that it would officially respond to the committee, but that CCUs were “necessity and not an option” to achieve its climatic objectives.
He said in a press release that this type of technology would make the security of the British energy system, which would reduce electricity costs and bills.
The United Kingdom has a target to reach “net zero” – which means that it no longer adds to the total quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, by 2050. While the country goes to renewable energies and far Fossil fuels to heat houses and racing cars, the greenhouse greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide, also known as CO2, will fall.
But a small amount of gas will still have to be used to maintain the supply of electricity and there are certain industries such as cement where there are few green alternatives. Carbon capture could prevent CO2 produced by these processes from entering the atmosphere – and the government has bet to achieve its climatic objectives.
The UK independent climate watchdog and the United Nations Climate Climate Science, IPCC, are suitable that CCUs will be necessary if countries wish to reach zero net and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
By 2050, the government wants to capture and storage carbon to prevent the issue of 50 million tonnes of CO2 – more than 10% of what the country is currently publishing – and has hired 21.7 billion pounds sterling To achieve this goal.
The funding, announced in October, will go to clusters of carbon capture projects in Merseyside and the Tesside, which, according to him, would create thousands of jobs and attract private investments.
Dr. Stuart Jenkins, a researcher at the University of Oxford, postponed the evaluation of the Technology Committee.
“I really don’t like” unproven “technology, it is not representative of the state of technology as an engineering problem,” he said.
Although there are no commercial CCU sites in the United Kingdom, 45 commercial installations already operating worldwide capturing around 50 million tonnes of CO2, and more than 700 are offered or developed, according to the agency international energy.
But Dr. Jenkins agreed with the Public Accounts Committee that there were questions about the question of whether the government’s current financing model was sustainable.
The Committee has recommended that the full financial impact of the consumer program is properly evaluated, taking into account the cost of living.
The committee recognized the importance of support for the first government for new technologies such as CCUs to give confidence to industry.
But he added that “was surprised” to discover that the government had signed two contracts with the developers of the CCUS last year and had not guaranteed that if the projects succeeded, the government – and the public – would receive profits or Advantages such as lower energy bills.
“If you were a venture capital by investing this type of money, which is indeed what taxpayers do here, you expect large equity participation in all of this,” said Sir Clifton-Brown.
Its committee recommended that future contracts be changed to include mechanisms for participation in profit.
The government said it expected funding for 21.7 billion pounds sterling for CCUs unlocking 8 billion pounds in the private sector in the next 25 years.
Mirte Boot, co-founder of Carbon Balance Initiative and Research Associate at the University of Oxford, said that her team’s research suggests that a better long-term financing model could be to introduce a storage mandate Carbon – Place a legal obligation on fossil fuel producers to store a share of the CO2 they produce or face a financial penalty.
“We argue that carbon storage mandates on fossil fuel producers are fair while providing the type of certainty of investments that companies need,” she said.
