Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for BEIS, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential role for (a) carbon capture, utilisation and storage and (b) other cleaner coal technologies in facilitating the end of unabated coal power.

We are leading the world by ending unabated coal generation in Great Britain by 2025 and the Department set out how we intend to put the 2025 closure into effect and the reasoning behind the preferred option. This is available on the website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/coal-generation-in-great-britain-the-pathway-to-a-low-carbon-future.

With regard to the potential role for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), Government has been clear that new CCUS coal plants could have a role to play, stipulating in 2010 that all new coal power stations must be fitted with carbon capture and storage technology. No such assessment has been made against other cleaner coal technologies.