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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding will be required to develop the infrastructure necessary for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the 2020s in order to meet their net-zero carbon target.

We are committed to deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS) this decade as we work towards Net Zero by 2050 and see an opportunity for the UK to become a global leader in CCS.

That’s why we announced a new CCS Infrastructure Fund which will enhance long-term competitiveness of UK’s industrial regions by providing at least £800 million to establish CCS in at least two UK clusters, one by the mid-2020s and another by 2030, contributing to our net zero targets and levelling up the economy.

In parallel, we are investing over £40 million between 2016 and 2021 in CCUS innovation, which includes £4.2 million funding for Tata Chemicals to construct a carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) plant. When operational in early 2021 the plant will capture and use approximately 40,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year to produce sodium bicarbonate and soda ash that can be used in high-end products such as haemodialysis equipment. Through the £24 million BEIS Call for CCUS Innovation, we are funding HyNet, project Acorn, OGCI Climate Investments and Drax/C-Capture to develop their CCUS deployment projects.

In addition, UKRI announced the allocation of the first phase of funding for the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge earlier this month, which we expect CCUS to play an important role in.