Olivia Powis, CEO of the CCSA, responds to news that the Conservative Party would repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act if it they win the next General Election.
“The UK’s Climate Change Act is a vital piece of legislation that has resulted in huge investment into the UK’s low carbon economy. It provides the legal certainty that businesses, investors and communities need to plan for the future, while ensuring successive governments remain accountable for reducing emissions and preparing for climate risks. Overall, this helps to lower the cost of action, creating long term certainty for investors and developers across all forms of needed infrastructure. To remove it would undermine years of progress and investment, weaken the UK’s global leadership in climate action and green technologies, and send a damaging signal to industries and investors.”
“For carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), the Climate Change Act is essential. The independent Climate Change Committee has made clear that there is no credible pathway to net zero without CCUS, and the carbon budgets enshrined in law provide the framework that drives investment in the infrastructure we need. Removing this framework would threaten projects already underway, put thousands of jobs at risk, and jeopardise the UK’s ability to meet its energy security and industrial transition goals. CCSA analysis shows that deploying all CCUS projects will create over 50,000 jobs, protect thousands of existing industrial jobs, while contributing £94 billion in Gross Value Added by 2050.”
“The private sector is already investing significant funding into CCUS, up to £26bn by 2030, and delivering real progress with projects being deployed across our industrial heartlands, including Merseyside, North Wales, Teesside, the Humber, Scotland, and Derbyshire & Staffordshire. This creates skilled jobs, attracts investment, and will capture and safely store millions of tonnes of CO₂ – cleaning up our vital industries and ensuring they remain competitive. While right to make sure these targets are met in the most cost-efficient way possible, backpedalling will not deliver energy security, economic growth, or climate actions – meaning we will all pay more through rising costs and dealing with rapidly increasing levels of flooding and extreme heat.”