The CCSA’s annual conference, CCUS 2021: Leading on net zero and clean growth, took place on the 12th-14th of October 2021. The conference brought together a range of delegates from across the CCUS sector, including policymakers, industry representatives, CCUS developers, technology providers, local authorities and others.
On the first day of the conference the CCSA released its new CCUS Animation, which can be viewed here. This animation gives an introduction to CCUS, its applications and the vital role that it must play in achieving net zero across the economy.
Baroness Liddell, President of the CCSA, kicked off the first session of the conference with a discussion on driving the net zero transition through CCUS. The Baroness was joined by Dame Judith Hackitt (Make UK), Joanna Whittington (DG Energy & Security at BEIS), John Johnson (Director of Development, SSE Thermal) and the incoming CCSA CEO Ruth Herbert, with all the speakers highlighting that beyond the challenges ahead, new opportunities await CCUS in the UK. Other sessions on the first day included public perception of CCUS with great engagement from BEIS who discussed their public perception report. Day 1 also featured a sponsored session from Shell on a customer’s perspective of CCUS and the final session of the day focussed on a highly interesting deep dive into negative emissions technologies.
On the second day, The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, gave the keynote speech of the conference. The Secretary of State emphasised the Government’s commitment to CCUS and the important role that CCUS will play in delivering the UK’s Net Zero target. During the Q&A he agreed that building public support is key and collaboration between industry and Government will be crucial here. This was followed by two sessions on the UK’s CCUS clusters, with proposals from Scotland, Teesside, Humber, South Wales and the North West represented. The clusters highlighted how they can enable a variety of industries to reach net zero whilst making a significant contribution to regional growth in the UK’s industrial heartlands. Day 2 also featured excellent sponsored sessions from Carbon Clean, who discussed Carbon Capture as a Service (CCaaS) which provides customers with a streamlined and simple means of capturing carbon, and a session from our platinum sponsor SSE Thermal, who held a great interactive session with breakout rooms with a focus on R&D, collaboration and consenting. The day was rounded off with a very insightful session on CCUS at Dispersed Sites.
The final day of the conference began with a breakfast session featuring an introduction to the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC). BP also held an excellent sponsored session focussing on delivering the UK Hydrogen Strategy. The final two sessions of the conference looked at CCUS on the European and International Stages, featuring speakers from the EU Commission, EU Energy Ministries, Bellona Europa and IEA GHG. We were also joined by Jennifer Wilcox from the US Department of Energy, Syrie Crouch, VP CCS Shell and Jarad Daniels (also from the US Department of Energy). To close the conference Olivia Powis, CCSA UK Head of Office and Ruth Herbert summarised a fabulous three days of content, collaboration and forward thinking with CCUS at its heart. Ruth made clear that looking ahead to COP26, the UK can be a leader in the industry and that now is the time for CCUS to deliver on net zero and clean growth, and the CCSA is ready to be an integral part of this action.