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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans she has to support the creation of carbon capture and storage clusters; and if she will make a statement.

Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) will play a vital role in meeting our net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, supporting both our Industrial Strategy and the revitalisation of the economies of the UK’s industrial areas.

The CCUS Action Plan outlined that deploying CCUS in industrial clusters has the potential to allow a number of carbon capture applications – for industry, to hydrogen, to low carbon gas or bio-energy with CCS in power – to connect to shared carbon dioxide infrastructure.

That is why this Government has committed to invest £800 million to build the first fully deployed CCUS cluster by the mid-2020s and £500 million to help energy-intensive industries move to low-carbon techniques.

CCUS is also likely to play an important role in achieving our Industrial Clusters Mission, creating the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040. This is supported by up to £170 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to support the deployment of low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in one or more clusters.