The UK government is set to spend $29 billion on carbon capture

The Keir Starmer government has announced around £22bn of funding to build carbon capture facilities in the North. The amount is equal to about 29 billion dollars.

According to the plans, the project, which is to create so-called carbon capture clusters in Merseyside and Teeside, should create around 4,000 jobs and support another 50,000 over the next two and a half decades, AFP reported.

The £21.7 billion initiative was “reigniting our industrial hearts by investing in the industry of the future”, Prime Minister Starmer said. The government hopes to attract around £8 billion in private investment for the plan. The state part of the investment would come from the budget and electricity bills.

The funds, which will be paid over 25 years, will be used to build three projects that would capture and store carbon dioxide from hydrogen production, gas-fired power generation and waste generation, Sky News reported. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions these three are expected to capture when completed is 8.5 million tonnes annually, to be stored in empty gas fields in Liverpool Bay and the North Sea.

Carbon capture is considered an essential technology to reach net zero. Wood Mackenzie estimated earlier this year that there could be around 440 million tonnes of carbon capture capacity by 2034, with storage capacity of 664 million tonnes annually. However, building that capacity would require nearly $200 billion, the consultancy said.

The International Energy Agency, on the other hand, has played down the importance of carbon capture and storage as a means to a net zero goal. The agency — and environmental organizations — have criticized carbon capture as too expensive, economically unviable and ultimately benefits the oil and gas industry, which both the IEA and many environmentalists would like to see gone.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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