Media reaction: logic of multi-billion pound investment in carbon capture "hard to follow" in UK budget
In response to today’s Budget announcement that the UK will be “providing £3.9 billion of funding in 2025-26 for Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Track-1 projects,” ClientEarth lawyer Sam Hunter Jones said:
“Given its unreliability and cost, it's hard to follow the government’s logic in making this multi-billion-pound investment.
“The UK is far off track from meeting its climate targets and carbon capture doesn’t even come close to delivering the same benefits as home insulation and ramping up the country’s public transport networks.
“These kinds of immediate measures can do so much more with greater investment - not just when it comes to reducing emissions but also in tackling the cost-of-living crisis and creating jobs across the country.
“Carbon capture and storage (CCS) on the other hand is an expensive, high-risk technology with a history of failing to deliver, which even the government expects to have only a limited role in the UK’s future energy system.
“The UK High Court confirmed just this year that the government has a legal obligation to put in place a new, lawful climate plan that can be credibly relied on to deliver the UK’s targets by May 2025.
“Investing public money and time in carbon capture at the expense of further support for proven, high-impact action that delivers so much more for the British public would only make this task more difficult.
“And this kind of investment is particularly disappointing given the fact that the government rightfully says it wants to reinstate the UK as a climate leader at COP29 and yet is backing a false solution that risks undermining the country’s leadership on the international stage.”
Following a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project, the High Court found the UK government’s climate strategy to be unlawful.
The government must now produce a new and legally compliant climate plan by May 2025 – which must set out how the government will reduce emissions by over two-thirds by the end of the decade. [
