Green Promises, Zero Progress: How the UK Is Failing Carbon Capture

In July 2023, the Conservative Government made a major fanfare about its allocation of £200m to back the Acorn Carbon Capture project at St Fergus, Aberdeen, but as usual, when it comes to saving the planet, it has become a political disaster, with not a single penny released by the Government so far because it missed its planned Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2025.

Not surprisingly, this has left the project’s private-sector investors running for the hills, with major partner Storegga desperately trying to sell its stake but few buyers coming forward, and yet the Government continues to claim the project is on track and hushes up the disastrous lack of progress.

This is simply not good enough, as Carbon storage is a vital element of the UK’s drive to become Carbon Neutral.

St Fergus is the hub of the UK’s natural gas network, with 25% of all North Sea Gas being landed here, and the plan is to use this same pipe network to pump extracted C02 from Scotland’s heavy industries back offshore to the same underwater caverns that North Sea Oil and Gas were extracted from.

Carbon Capture technology, while not new, has been largely inaccessible for individual businesses due to the considerable, long-term investment in shared infrastructure that only governments can feasibly undertake. Despite having had various options at its disposal for years, the government has yet to act, largely because of the perceived lack of political advantage in pursuing further, expensive “Green” policies.

Nonetheless, the drastic inflation in home heating costs, driven by escalating gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and now the war in Iran, has thrust UK energy security and the need to reduce household heating bills to the forefront of many UK households' priorities.

The only logical solution is therefore to “Drill baby Drill” and to rapidly scale up North Sea Oil Extraction so we are not dependent on imported oil during the long period it will take to increase clean electricity production via a massive investment in Nuclear Power ( Seeprevious blogs).

However, if the burning of this extra oil is not balanced by Carbon Extraction, the result will be a disaster for the planet and a complete abandonment of the UK’s Green Credentials, so come on, Labour, live up to your promises and get the St Fergus project moving again!

Currently, only 46% of our electricity comes from zero-carbon sources. It's crucial that the government expand construction of both offshore and onshore wind farms and invest heavily in additional nuclear power plants.  

The Labour Government is stupidly anti-drilling and anti-fracking, even though both are needed now to give us Energy Security, because it goes against their green credentials. Yet this could easily be balanced if it supported the implementation of Carbon Capture technology at all power stations.

The road to UK Carbon Neutrality is not straightforward and must be driven by affordable policies that increase UK energy security and reduce consumer prices, something the current Labour Government does not seem to understand, as they continue to miss obvious opportunities.

Transitioning to Green EVs powered by clean electricity is arguably the most straightforward green initiative UK consumers can adopt, especially given that the operating costs of these EVs are 50% lower than those of petrol cars, but the Government has done nothing to promote the benefits of this move to the public 

Secondly, it is lazy politics that mean tax incentives which make electric vehicles (EVs) more affordable to lease than their petrol counterparts are only available via Salary Sacrifice Schemes that require the involvement of businesses. Currently, only 20% of UK businesses offer these schemes, which use tax breaks to cut lease costs by 50%, simply because the Government has not spent a single penny promoting them, leaving it to the likes of ECO, the Electric Car Scheme, to spread the word for them.

However, why operate such a complex scheme rather than just offer tax credits to anyonewho moves to an EV, as the USA and other European countries do?

Given the weak second-hand EV market, a more effective approach would be to allocate these credits exclusively to second-hand EVs. Affluent individuals who can afford new cars would also benefit, as this would foster a robust second-hand market and ensure strong residual values when they sell their cars in the future. Simultaneously, this would makesecond-hand EVs more affordable for lower-income households.

The Central Government should further encourage local councils to incorporate fleets of second-hand EVs as a cornerstone of a "green" local transport network. Given EVs'significantly lower operating costs than petrol taxis, fares could remain steady while still generating modest profits per mile. If councils were to rent these EV taxis to local taxi companies that may lack the capital for such an upgrade on a per-mile basis, this could provide a viable solution.

Using a simple app modelled on "Uber" would enable local residents to access these clean EV taxis on a point-to-point, demand-based basis, rather than waiting for a traditional half-empty bus to follow its predetermined route. Differential pricing for seniors and those with special needs could be pre-programmed based on an individual's login, ensuring subsidies are directed towards those most in need while fostering a clean, green, and innovative public transport network.