As many as 50,000 new jobs could be created this decade in carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), the sector’s trade body has claimed, provided that government enacts enabling policies.
The calculation comes in a report from the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), compiled by Cambridge Econometrics and engineering consultants Afry.
The fifty thousand target for new jobs could be achieved, say the analysts, given early deployment of CCS along lines outlined in the Climate Change Committee’s sixth carbon budget. That foresees capturing 22 million tonnes per year by 2030. The target would be buoyed by new jobs selling overseas Britain’s expertise in CCUS.
Upfront public funds of between £ 1.2 billion and £ 2.6 billion would be needed to boost CCUS as a national solution, the report estimates. As well as new roles, an equivalent total of existing jobs would be preserved in carbon-intensive sectors, such as steel, aluminium, chemicals, and refining.
The CCSA’s Olivia Powis said: “All 2030 net-zero scenarios clearly show that CCUS needs to significantly scale up in the 2020s.
“To do that, the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review should introduce a long-term funding mechanism for CCUS, just like the Government successfully did ten years ago for the renewable power sector through the Levy Control Framework”.
Scotland’s first CCS hub is taking shape at the Grangemouth refinery, between Stirling and Edinburgh. Developers Acorn CCS has co-ordinated public commitments from tenants INEOS and Petroineos, its Chinese-backed joint-venture.
Last week’s announcement envisaged one million tonnes of CO2 being collected each year by 2027.
Today it emerged that oil & gas extractors Neptune Energy have inked in Lincolnshire’s Theddlethorpe refinery as its DelpHYnus hub for CCS and blue hydrogen. Included in the scheme alongside agreements signed with project partners is an unnamed ‘world leader in industrial gas production’.
Shipping and transportation options for Neptune’s Humberside venture will be furnished by Carbon Collections, a specialist marine CO2 service provider.
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