Humber and Teesside form East Coast Cluster

THE Humber and Teesside industrial clusters have formed the East Coast Cluster, a collaboration that could decarbonise half of the UK’s industrial cluster emissions.

The East Coast Cluster is a collaboration between Zero Carbon Humber, Net Zero Teesside, and the Northern Endurance Partnership. It aims to advance the UK Government’s goal to establish the first net zero carbon cluster by 2040. The Humber and Teesside regions are responsible for around 50% of the UK’s industrial cluster emissions. Therefore capturing and storing these emissions will help to meet the net zero goal. There are a variety of low carbon projects being undertaken as part of the East Coast Cluster, including industrial and power carbon capture, low carbon hydrogen production, and negative emissions power. The East Coast Cluster has the potential to support an average of 25,000 jobs per year between 2023 and 2050.

The Northern Endurance Partnership has submitted a bid to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on behalf of the East Coast Cluster to develop the common infrastructure needed for CO₂ transport and storage in the offshore aquifer Endurance in the Southern North Sea.

Andy Lane, Managing Director at NEP, said: “The UK needs to decarbonise industry to reach net zero. Nearly half of all carbon emissions from UK industrial clusters come from the Humber and Teesside, making the East Coast Cluster the single biggest opportunity to decarbonise UK industry.”

“Hundreds of thousands of jobs have relied on the industries which have grown in these regions, and the East Coast Cluster – by decarbonising hard-to-abate industries – aims to keep it that way, while developing a platform for UK industry to compete on a global scale.” 

Andy Benjamin, Director of CCUS, National Grid Ventures, said: “The East Coast Cluster offers the scale and diversity to protect and create tens of thousands of jobs across the Humber and Teesside for decades to come, while building a solid foundation to re-establish the region as a globally-competitive climate-friendly hub for industry and innovation.”