Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that Carbon Capture and Storage is rolled out in the UK energy generation market.

The Government continues to view Carbon Capture and Storage as having a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK’s power and industrial sectors.

The Government has invested over £130 million in CCS Research & Development between 2011 and 2016. We announced in October 2015 £1.7 million support for three innovative CCS technologies through our Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, and our £2.5 million project through the Energy Technologies Institute to begin appraisal of five potential CO₂ stores which is due to conclude by March 2016. We are also supporting, jointly with the Scottish Government, the CCS developer Summit Power with £4.2 million funding to undertake industrial research and development at their proposed CCS Caledonia Clean Energy Project in Grangemouth.

The Government continues to engage closely with the CCS industry on the future of Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK. I co-chaired a special session of the joint Government-industry CCS Development Forum in December 2015.