Tony Baldry
Main Page: Tony Baldry (Conservative - Banbury)
Charles Hendry
I have yet to be tempted to fight a seat in Newcastle, but these opportunities may still happen. I was grateful for the chance to meet the hon. Lady and some of the team from Newcastle university—they and others are doing very important work in this area. We are still looking at some of the work, and I have a meeting coming up with one of the major global companies, Linc Energy, to try to understand more fully and effectively the work that it is doing in this sector. We think that it can be a player, but it is not in the forefront for the first stage of carbon capture and storage projects, because of the current stage of the technology.
Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
It is estimated that carbon capture and storage technology could support an amazing 100,000 jobs by the end of the next decade, so does my hon. Friend agree that speed is very much of the essence if we are to maximise the huge opportunities that this technology offers?
Charles Hendry
I agree strongly with my hon. Friend, and the reason why we have brought forward this competition with the speed that we have—three months for submissions to be made and another three months or so before the final outcome is known—is the importance of speed. Work is going on around the world to try to deal with this. We think that with £1 billion up front and £125 million for research and development, and through our new market reform structure—a long-term mechanism for supporting that industry—we can move this from being a few pilot projects to an industry.