UK ‘in a mess’ as carbon capture goes up in smoke
THE head of the British Chambers of Commerce has blasted the Government for axeing a £1billion grant for carbon capture last week.
Firms have been left furious at the resulting collapse of the world-first project that would have created hundreds of jobs.
Shell has said that without the funding it has ‘no future’ in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, where it planned its carbon capture plant, creating 600 jobs. Shell said the withdrawal of Government funding would affect other British firms too.
‘What has been put back by this decision is a viable carbon capture industry in the UK, which is unfortunate, not least for the local community in Scotland which would have benefited greatly,’ said Shell.
Meanwhile, director-general of the BCC John Longworth, speaking to The Mail on Sunday after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, said: ‘There was no addressing of long-term energy security. The energy policy is a complete mess. It has even abandoned carbon capture. Despite the fact we have 150 years’ worth of carbon underneath England it is not doing anything about how we can actually extract it and use it in future.
‘What affects our members is the excessive price of energy in the UK because of the many green taxes beyond those the EU requires. There’s concern about security of supply.’
He called it ‘outrageous’ that firms could be asked to switch off to save energy, saying: ‘It’s ridiculous for Government to get to a state where it says to firms “we may have to switch you off to save energy – you’re the first to go”. This perverse outcome is driven by an obsessive focus on being green.’
Meanwhile, business leaders at the One Young World conference in Bangkok last weekend urged politicians to act on climate change.
Unilever committed to being carbon positive by 2030 on Friday, to which the UK boss of the World Wildlife Fund David Nussbaum said: ‘This is welcome news from one of the world’s biggest companies, on the eve of the UN Climate Summit in Paris.’