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, what his planned timetable is to make a decision on whether Planetary Technologies and South West Water will be granted permission to carry out carbon sequestration trials involving adding alkaline minerals to treated waste water being pumped into the sea.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In March 2023, Planetary Technologies and South West Water asked the Environment Agency to authorise their carbon sequestration trial in St Ives Bay. Varying South West Water’s EPR (Environmental Permitting Regulations) permit would not have been appropriate for a short term trial (less than one month) so the approach would be to issue a Local Enforcement Position. The current EPR permit for the discharge doesn’t cover the proposed dosing activity and only considers the local environmental aspects rather than the wider policy implications and effectiveness of carbon sequestration of adding alkaline material (magnesium hydroxide) into the waste water outfall pipe.
We commissioned the Water Research Centre (WRC) to audit Planetary Technologies’ proposal and we received WRC’s report in February 2024. The report concluded the trial was low risk and made several recommendations to Planetary. Planetary Technologies have now informed us that they wish to delay their formal application for the Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement trial for a period of approximately 6 to 12 months, to allow them time to action the recommendations.
We will consider a new application as and when we receive it.
More information can be found here.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
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.
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.
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.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of using transport and storage companies for the development of provisional cluster expansion plans for Track-2 carbon capture, usage and storage on the timely roll-out of the projects.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The CCUS Track-2 December 2023 Market Update set out government’s proposed Track-2 approach of an ‘anchor’ and ‘buildout’ phase; this embedded learnings from the CCUS Track-1 process. The Track-2 process aims to establish clusters at pace and provide a platform for flexibility and innovation in future phases, as well as to carry out transport and storage sizing.
At ‘anchor’ phase, Acorn and Viking will be invited to submit plans for initial capture projects, as well as a provisional expansion plan for the ‘buildout’ phase. The format of the buildout rounds will be announced in due course and may be subject to factors including project pool maturity and progress against our Net Zero and Energy Security objectives.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has provided recent guidance to (a) transport and (b) storage companies on the development of provisional cluster expansion plans for track-2 carbon capture, usage and storage.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The CCUS Track-2 December 2023 Market Update set out government’s proposed Track-2 approach of an ‘anchor’ and ‘buildout’ phase and high-level timelines.
Government has started initial engagement with the Acorn and Viking Transport and Storage systems. Further guidance on the process, the criteria applicable to any projects in such ‘anchor’ and ‘buildout’ phases and the respective roles of Government and the transport & storage systems will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the timelines in her Department's policy paper entitled, Carbon capture, usage and storage: a vision to establish a competitive market, published on 20 December 2024, on the deliverability of its target of capturing 20 to 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across the economy by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has set out an ambition to establish four CCUS clusters that will capture 20-30 Mtpa of carbon dioxide per year by 2030. In 2023, the Chancellor announced the availability of up to £20 billion for investment in the early development of CCUS. This unprecedented investment will help meet the government’s climate commitments.
The CCUS Vision stated that by the mid 2030s, the amount of CO₂ annually stored may need to increase to at least 50 megatonnes per annum (Mtpa). To achieve this, it is likely that the CCUS sector will need to increase the annual amount of CO₂ stored by at least 6 Mtpa each year from 2031.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether it is still her Department's aim for the UK to be capturing 20–30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across the economy by 2030 of which 5 million tonnes would be delivered from Engineered GGRs.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In October 2021, the government announced in the Net Zero Strategy its ambition to capture and store 20-30 MtCO2 per year by 2030, with 10Mt of this capacity to be delivered by Track-2 clusters.
The Net Zero Strategy outlines an ambition to deploy 5MtCO2/year of engineered removals by 2030. The UK Government remains committed to meeting these ambitions.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her Department's timelines are for carbon capture, usage and storage (a) track-1 expansion and (b) track-2 cluster sequencing; whether those processes will run concurrently; and whether the track-2 timeline is contingent on the progress of track-1 processes.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government has progressed the CCUS cluster sequencing process, selecting the first 4 clusters to meet the 2030 ambition.
Projects submitted applications for HyNet expansion in March. These will be assessed, with shortlisted projects announced from Autumn 2024.
Following agreement of Heads of Terms with the Transport and Storage company in December 2023, Government is considering the best timing for launching an East Coast Cluster expansion process, beginning with assessment of store readiness.
The Track-2 December update set out Government’s proposed ‘anchor’ and ‘buildout’ approach. Government has continued engagement with Acorn and Viking, and will provide further guidance in due course.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, which consultations (a) published and (b) inherited by her Department are awaiting a response; and when she plans to publish each of those responses.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has inherited or published 35 consultations, for which a response by the department is still outstanding:
The Department will respond to each in due course.