PM’s adviser backs ‘air capture’
An experimental plan championed by Dominic Cummings to tackle global warming by ‘‘sucking’’ carbon dioxide out of the air will receive £100 million (NZ$191m) from the Treasury.
The prime minister’s chief adviser backs the development of a little known technology that can capture carbon in the atmosphere and store it underground but the move has attracted scepticism in Whitehall.
Civil servants have also been told to develop plans to support the industry by buying the CO2 that is extracted as part of Britain’s programme to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Sources said the project had been driven by Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, who has become an advocate for the technology and its potential in the battle against climate change. He has won the support of Tim Leunig, the chancellor’s economic adviser, who is also backing it.
Both men believe that with early investment Britain could become a world leader in the technology, which is being developed by two firms. However, some in Whitehall fear that it could distract from more conventional and proven projects to cut emissions such as the government’s pledge to spend £9 billion on insulating homes. ‘‘Dom had become obsessed by this,’’ a Whitehall source said. ‘‘He is the one who has been pushing it despite huge scepticism from officials. But he has got his way.’’
Enthusiasts for the technology, known as ‘‘direct air capture’’, say that without efforts to remove existing CO2 it will be next to impossible to meet Britain’s 2050 commitment on emissions. Some critics, however, say that it is an expensive and energy inefficient distraction for making the hard choices necessary to meet the 2050 target.
One calculated that to capture enough carbon to ‘‘offset’’ the emissions from the aviation sector alone it would require the government to generate additional electricity equivalent to building up to five new nuclear power stations.
At least two companies have now created working direct air capture plants but at the moment it costs nearly £500 to remove a single tonne of CO2.
Those behind the projects believe that with government and private sector investment these costs could be reduced to less than £100 per tonne and energy use could also be reduced.
Cummings has spoken on a number of occasions to Julio Friedmann, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Centre for Global Energy Policy, who has advised the United States government on carbon capture. Friedmann, an early advocate, said he could not speak for Cummings but that the government’s initiative was to be welcomed. ‘‘I have had a couple of conversations with him and I wouldn’t want to put his words in his mouth. [But] since we know that direct air capture is required and inevitable, it is in the interests of the United Kingdom – or any other country to get ahead of it [climate change],’’ he said.
Friedmann said he accepted it would always be energy intensive.
Christoph Beuttler, of the Swiss company Climeworks, which has already built direct air capture plants in Europe, said urgent government investment was needed to make it work at scale.
Jim Watson, a professor at UCL, said the announcement was ‘‘significant’’ but added: ‘‘It mustn’t be used as a reason to do less on emissions reductions.’’ –
‘‘Dom had become obsessed by this ... He is the one who has been pushing it despite huge scepticism from officials. But he has got his way.’’
Whitehall source