Carbon Capture and Storage

Written Question

Climate Change: Finance

Thursday 23rd May 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to amend fiscal rules to (a) incentivise and (b) reward spending on climate change mitigation measures.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to sustainable public finances and delivering on the priority of getting debt falling over the medium-term. To deliver on this priority, the Government has fiscal rules – the rules require underlying debt to be falling and borrowing to be below 3% of GDP in the fifth year of the rolling forecast period. The fiscal rules are comprehensive, and targeting public sector wide measures means the impact of Government decisions on the public finances is clearly reflected.

The Government is committed to ensuring fiscal decision making is aligned with achieving net zero and our legally binding environmental targets. The Green Book requires departments to assess the climate and environmental impacts of policy proposals, with major bids and proposals at fiscal events assessed according to these impacts, and Spending Review 2021 was developed alongside the Net Zero Strategy to ensure our plans were funded.

Spending Review 2021 committed £30 billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, we have committed a further £6 billion for energy efficiency in the next parliament, up to £20 billion of long-term funding for early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage, and over £1 billion for green industries supply chains through the Green Industries Growth Accelerator.

Written Question

Carbon Capture and Storage: Water Treatment

Thursday 23rd May 2024

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of the proposal from Planetary Technologies and South West Water to perform a carbon sequestration trial by adding magnesium hydroxide into treated wastewater outlet pipes.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies are technologies that seek to remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Technologies such as Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) are currently being considered under this category. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now considers GGR technologies to be essential in limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. The Government has an ambition to reach 5MtCO2/year of removals by 2030, potentially rising to 23MtCO2/year by 2035.

Reaching Net Zero and achieving good environmental status in the seas is a priority for Defra. Trials which advance GGR technologies, such as the proposed trial by Planetary Technologies and South West Water, could bring us closer to being able to deploy these technologies at a large scale. Reaching Net Zero will have benefits for ocean health and ecosystems. GGR technologies such as OAE may also benefit ocean health in other ways, for example, they may temporarily help combat local ocean acidification and the related negative impacts on species and ecosystems, such as calcium carbonate dissolution of calcifying species.

Planetary Technologies have informed the Environment Agency that they wish to delay their formal application for their proposed trial for a period of approximately 6 to 12 months. A new application will be considered as and when it is received.

Written Question

Carbon Capture and Storage: Water Treatment

Thursday 23rd May 2024

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by the Water Research Centre entitled Pre-Trial Audit of the Planetary and South West Water Ocean and Alkalinity Enhancement Pilot, published in February 2024.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The pilot proposed by Planetary Technologies and South West Water involves the addition of alkaline material into the sea to assess the extent to which this results in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as a method of engineered greenhouse gas removal.

The Environment Agency commissioned the Water Research Centre (WRC) to independently audit Planetary Technologies’ proposal and received WRC’s report in February 2024. The report concluded the trial was low risk and made several recommendations to Planetary. The WRC report can be found on a dedicated Planetary Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Trial Information Page hosted by the Environment Agency. More information can be found here. Planetary Technologies have informed the Environment Agency that they wish to delay their formal application for this proposed trial for a period of approximately 6 to 12 months, to allow them time to action the recommendations.

The Government is still evaluating the potential for marine-based technologies, such as ocean alkalinity enhancement, to provide a route for effective greenhouse gas removal. The benefits and risks to the environment need to be explored before these technologies can be deployed on a large scale. Pilot studies are essential to understanding the risks and benefits of these new technologies, but they need to be regulated to ensure they do not have adverse impacts themselves on the marine environment.