On 18th November, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a Ten Point Plan to lay the foundations for a Green Industrial Revolution.
The Ten Point Plan sets out a roadmap for decarbonising the country, building back better from the coronavirus pandemic, supporting green jobs, and accelerating the journey to net zero. The plan includes an increase in ambition for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, with an ambition to establish two industrial CCS clusters by mid 2020s, and four by 2030, capturing up to 10 Mt of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
C-Capture CEO Tom White was invited to take part in a virtual innovator roundtable with the Prime Minister, alongside leading industry figures across the energy industry. The Prime Minster articulated his vision for partnering with business to deliver green investment and growth, and welcomed comments from participants including Bernard Looney, CEO of bp; Katherine Bennett CBE, Senior Vice President of Airbus; John Pettigrew, CEO of National Grid; Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of Energy UK and other leading industry figures.
C-Capture has welcomed the Ten Point plan and the increased ambition for CCS. Tom White was keen to explore with the Prime Minister what support was available for emerging technologies. Specifically, to underwrite or co-fund commercial scale demonstration projects for first-of-a-kind technologies. This step in the innovation pathway inherently carries a higher element of risk, that lies outside the commercially available project financing. The Prime Minister assured Mr White that government support would be available, and highlighted that measures under point 10 of the plan were designed to support such projects.
Government support for is crucial for entrepreneurial companies like C-Capture who are developing innovative technologies, to cross the ‘valley-of-death’ that lies between research & development grants and mainstream project finance, to ensure successful very large scale deployment that will result in a material effect in the fight against climate change.
Tom White said after the event
It was fantastic to have the opportunity to speak directly to the Prime Minister on this hugely significant day. The Ten Point Plan is an important starting point, and we are delighted to see support for CCS projects which have the potential to capture millions of tonnes of CO2 per year, provide investment and jobs, and help level up the country. But more is needed. Alongside direct support for projects, we need policy surety to give confidence to investors, and a transparent mechanism to support ongoing costs of carbon capture and storage.
We are looking forward to working with the government and its Net Zero Task Force as it further develops its decarbonisation strategy. The UK has the opportunity to be a global leader in decarbonisation and C-Capture can play a significant role in the journey.