Pictured: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Image: HM Treasury, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmtreasury/52709204360/
The Budget speech is not due until Wednesday (15 March) but, this evening (10 March), the Treasury has confirmed some of the key inclusions on finance for the energy sector – including a globally unprecedented commitment of public funding to man-made carbon capture technologies.
Hunt will lay out plans for a two-decade investment plan in the carbon capture space and pledge to ensure that “shovels are in the ground” on the first tranche of projects by the end of 2024. The Government is notably aiming for at least one low-carbon industrial cluster with carbon capture to come online this decade and is also assessing opportunities for smaller, dispersed carbon capture sites.
The Government is claiming that, with the investment set to be outlined by Hunt, the UK can expect to capture between 20 million and 30 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.