Carbon Capture Usage and Storage

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Redcar (Anna Turley) on her statement. I too am a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, and I take some pride in the report. I think it offers an exciting opportunity for the United Kingdom in what will be an ever-expanding global market for this technology. My question is based on a summary statement in the report:

“The greatest barriers to the development of CCUS in the UK are commercial, rather than technical.”

I think that is true. There is a massive opportunity for Scotland in this technology, which is why I am surprised that not a single member of the SNP’s parliamentary party has turned up for the statement—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

Order. The idea is to have fairly brief questions and answers, because we have a lot of business to get through this afternoon.

[Stephen Kerr]

My question is really quite simple. There is a commercial barrier and it relates to the business model. Requiring a single business to finance the capture, transport and storage of carbon will greatly increase the cost of carbon dioxide stored, so what can the Government do to enable the development of viable business models for CCUS?