Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the timelines in her Department's policy paper entitled, Carbon capture, usage and storage: a vision to establish a competitive market, published on 20 December 2024, on the deliverability of its target of capturing 20 to 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across the economy by 2030.

The Government has set out an ambition to establish four CCUS clusters that will capture 20-30 Mtpa of carbon dioxide per year by 2030. In 2023, the Chancellor announced the availability of up to £20 billion for investment in the early development of CCUS. This unprecedented investment will help meet the government’s climate commitments.

The CCUS Vision stated that by the mid 2030s, the amount of CO₂ annually stored may need to increase to at least 50 megatonnes per annum (Mtpa). To achieve this, it is likely that the CCUS sector will need to increase the annual amount of CO₂ stored by at least 6 Mtpa each year from 2031.