UK launches new CCUS Advisory Group

THE Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has formed a new CCUS Advisory Group to help deliver the UK Government’s CCUS action plan and accelerate the development of CCUS technologies.

The group consists of experts in industry, finance, and policy, and includes representatives from BP, Shell, Tata Steel, Drax, and the National Grid. The group is backed by up to £1m (US$1.32m) from the Government and industry and will help to deliver the Government’s CCUS action plan that was announced in November 2018. The plan aims to deploy a CCUS cluster by the mid-2020s, followed by deploying CCUS at scale during the 2030s.

The group will develop cost structures, risk-sharing arrangements, and the necessary market mechanisms to create the investment framework needed to deliver CCUS projects by the mid-2020s.

Paul Davies, Chair of the CCUS Advisory Group, said: "Forming the CCUS Advisory Group is a great step forward, as the public and private sectors will now work together to develop a detailed commercial framework to underpin CCUS delivery in the UK. This is a key crucial initiative necessary to ensure the first projects are operational by the mid-2020s.”

Luke Warren, Chief Executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), said: “2019 needs to be the year of action on CCUS if we are to commission the first projects by the mid-2020s and deploy at scale in the 2030s. In the year when the Government will consider how to achieve net zero emissions, all the evidence points to CCUS being essential if we are to have any hope of reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement. The establishment of this new Advisory Group shows that government and industry are prepared to work together to make this happen, and the CCSA looks forward to supporting the Government’s ambition of becoming a world leader in this crucial technology.”