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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2022 to Question 93406 on Carbon Capture and Storage: Technology and with reference to The University of Manchester’s report entitled Capturing the Carbon Opportunity published in 2022, whether his Department plans to take steps to scale up (a) storage and (b) transport infrastructure for the carbon that is captured in an industrial process.

The Government recognises the critical role that carbon capture and storage can play in supporting industrial decarbonisation across the UK and in delivering Net Zero. That is why the Government launched the Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage cluster sequencing process, with the aim of having four clusters operational by 2030. Following the selection of the first two clusters – Hynet and the East Coast Cluster – the Government recently announced a shortlist of projects to proceed to due diligence. Details of the process for selecting the next two clusters will be set out in due course.