Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help energy intensive industries to decarbonise.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed up to £20 billion to support early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage, and up to £500 million for the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to help industry decarbonise, for which phase 3 opened last month.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department is taking steps to include the the impact of (a) seagrass meadows, (b) salt marshes and (c) other blue carbon habitats in the greenhouse gas inventory.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The estimation of the impact of anthropogenic activities on seagrass meadows, salt marshes and other blue carbon habitats along the shores of the UK is currently precluded by widespread gaps in the data required to generate emission estimates in line with current guidelines.
We are working with the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership (UKBCEP) to resolve this. As a first step, a roadmap to inclusion of saltmarsh has been created and the UKBCEP are working to collect the necessary data.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of access to carbon capture and storage capabilities in each region; and whether she is taking steps to help ensure the (a) equity and (b) efficiency of the distribution of such capabilities.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has previously undertaken assessments of the potential CCUS capabilities of industrial clusters across the UK, including the HyNet, East Coast Cluster, Acorn, and Viking clusters, as part of the Cluster Sequencing Process. The guidance and eligibility criteria for these assessments is available on gov.uk.
CCUS will be essential to meeting the UK’s 2050 net zero target, playing a vital role in levelling up the economy, supporting the low-carbon economic transformation of our industrial regions, creating new high value jobs across the UK. We remain committed to industrial decarbonisation across all nations and regions of the UK as we work toward net zero.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make a comparative estimate of the funding the Government has committed to spend with the amount spent on (a) Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS), (b) hydrogen production and (c) Direct air capture (DAC) since January 2020.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In the 2023 Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced up to £20bn for the deployment of CCUS in the UK. Commercial negotiations are ongoing. Up to £40m of the CCUS Infrastructure Fund is being spent under the UKRI Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge Fund. Under the Net Innovation Zero Portfolio (NZIP) the UK government has committed £25m to CCUS innovations.
From the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), £60m has been committed to the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removal Innovation Programme. Of this around £23 million is funding for the Direct Air Capture technology demonstration projects.
Over £127 million has been allocated to hydrogen production projects from the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. The first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1) will provide over £2 billion of revenue support from the Hydrogen Production Business Model, which will start to be paid once projects become operational from 2025. Hydrogen innovation projects have been allocated over £170m from the NZIP.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the £20 billion of funding announced in the Spring Budget 2023 for early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage was in addition to previous announcements of funding for (a) carbon capture, usage and storage, (b) hydrogen power and (c) direct air capture made since January 2020.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In March 2023 Government announced up to £20 billion funding for early deployment of CCUS across all sectors. This includes the £1 billion Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) Infrastructure Fund (CIF), supporting the ambition for CCUS in four industrial clusters by 2030 at the latest.
The Government has also made wider announcements on funding for green technologies since 2020. For example, in May 2021, the Government announced £166m cash injection for green technology, this included £6m for the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removals Innovation Programme, Phase 1. In July 2022, the Government announced that carbon removal technology would benefit from over £54m of Government Funding. This was for the Direct air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removals Programme Phase 2.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the draft Energy National Policy Statements, what assessment she has made of the environmental impact of extending the proposed Critical National Priority presumption to any low carbon energy infrastructure (a) onshore and (b) offshore, including (i) nuclear generation and (ii) nature gas fired generation which is carbon capture ready.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has published an Appraisal of Sustainability of the National Policy Statements. The Appraisal of Sustainability provides an assessment of Critical National Priority under several headline themes, including the natural environment, and includes proposed monitoring to examine the effects predicted through the Appraisal of Sustainability against the actual effects of the National Policy Statements when they are implemented.
The published Post Adoption Statement also addresses amendments to the National Policy Statements that have been informed by the Appraisal of Sustainability findings.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to encourage (a) investment in and (b) development of the connection between offshore oil and gas and carbon capture, usage and storage technologies.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The skills and investment of the oil and gas sector will drive our energy transition.
A government-funded report looking at the CCUS supply chain found that oil and gas supply chain companies are in prime position to win work in carbon capture and storage.
Government is also making it easier for workers to move between different energy sectors, ensuring that their skills can be tapped into to support the transition.
The Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill introduced last year will support ongoing investment, protect the 200,000 jobs supported by oil and gas, and support the wider energy transition including CCUS development.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to encourage (a) investment in and (b) development of the connection between onshore oil and gas and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) technologies.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The skills and investment of the oil and gas sector will drive our energy transition.
A government-funded report looking at the CCUS supply chain found that oil and gas supply chain companies are in prime position to win work in carbon capture and storage.
Government is also making it easier for workers to move between different energy sectors, ensuring that their skills can be tapped into to support the transition.
The Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill introduced last year will support ongoing investment, protect the 200,000 jobs supported by oil and gas, and support the wider energy transition including CCUS development.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what targets his Department has set to help achieve the Government's commitments on net zero.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government set out how we would meet our commitments in the Net Zero Strategy in 2021 which included a detailed breakdown of actions required across all sectors in the economy. This was updated in 2023 through the publication of 'Powering Up Britain'.
The UK has halved its emissions, ahead of every other major economy, and we have grown our economy by over 70% since 1990. The UK over-achieved against the first and second carbon budgets, and the latest projections show that we are on track to meet the third.
We have one of the most ambitious decarbonisation targets in the world, and we have set more stretching targets for 2030 than most countries. We plan to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, which is more than the EU, Japan or the United States.
Since Spending Review 2021, Government has committed an additional £6 billion for energy efficiency and clean heat, up to £20 billion for Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) and £960m through the Green Industries Growth Accelerator.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to seek approval from Parliament before taking a decision on burning of wood in UK power stations after 2027.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government is currently consulting on potential arrangements to help facilitate the transition of large-scale biomass generation to power bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. Responses to the consultation will help to inform government policy on this matter. As set out in the consultation, a potential support mechanism is expected to require secondary legislation which would be brought to Parliament as part of the legislative process.