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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the implications for Government policy on carbon capture and storage (CCS) are of the decision not to proceed with the CCS Commercialisation Commission.

The Government has not closed the door on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and believes it has a potentially important role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK. We are clear that CCS is currently too expensive and its costs must come down. We continue to work with wider industry to help develop CCS cost efficiently in the UK, including through the joint Government-industry CCS Development Forum, which I co-chair. We will set out our approach to CCS in due course, informed by the findings from Lord Oxburgh’s CCS Advisory Group.