UK must spend £30bn to strip CO2 from the air, experts warn

BRITAIN must invest £30bn in a network of massive air cleansing systems that strip CO2 from the atmosphere if it is to reach net zero, a Government-funded report has warned.

The “direct air carbon capture sys- tems” would remove up to 48m tonnes of CO2 from the air each year and pump it into disused oil and gas reservoirs under the North Sea or Irish Sea.

Without such a scheme, the UK will never reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050, according to the report by Energy Systems Catapult, a government-funded body that promotes innovation.

It also warns that direct capture will be essential if the UK is to maintain an aviation industry, because aircraft are unlikely to be able to run entirely on sustainable fuels.

“Beyond 2040 we see few options to abate remaining emissions, so use of direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) will be required,” it said.

“Direct air capture would collect 38-48m tonnes of CO2 a year by 2050. This technology appears to be essential to meeting net zero in all our scenarios and yet remains unproven at scale.”

Plants would be built along the east coast, from East Anglia to Aberdeen, and CO2 captured pumped to storage sites beneath the North Sea, according to the study.

Some 37bn tons of CO2 is released globally each year, mostly from fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. About 40pc is soaked up by oceans but the rest stays in the atmosphere. Removing it is a huge challenge because overall concentrations remain tiny at around 426 parts per million, or 0.04pc.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is spending £100m of taxpayers’ money on experimental projects to capture CO2, with plans to turn successful ones into full-scale industries by 2040. One idea is to grind up rocks such as basalt that absorb CO2 and spread the tiny particles across fields to convert atmospheric CO2 into mineral that lock them into the earth.

Air could also be pumped through reactive minerals to convert it into a construction material. However, such schemes are energy intensive and would have to be powered by wind, nuclear or solar energy to avoid generating CO2.

The UK’S carbon footprint is about 750-800m tonnes of CO2, half of which is emitted within its borders and the remainder from imported goods.