Chris Packham urges UK to scale back £24bn CCS plan — SkimNews
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- Chris Packham branded CCS a “tech fairytale” and called the UK’s £24bn spending plan a “national embarrassment,” saying support exceeds planned spending by the US, EU, Norway and Japan combined.
- The UK government reportedly plans to reduce grants for households swapping gas boilers for electric heat pumps, while Packham urged the budget to protect funding that lowers bills; heating buildings accounts for around a fifth of UK greenhouse-gas emissions.
- Oil Change International senior researcher Aled Dilwyn Fisher said this week’s budget should put public money into climate solutions that cut emissions and bills, warning that curbing proven solutions while backing unreliable CCS would add insult to injury.
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero undersecretary Martin McCluskey said the government remains committed to carbon capture but that fiscal pressures “may require decisions on the pace” of the industry’s development.
- CCSA said more than £4bn in supply-chain contracts have been awarded by the UK’s first CCS projects, supporting about 350 UK companies and 5,500 construction jobs; UK director Mark Sommerfeld said pulling back would undermine investor confidence and risk leaving infrastructure underused.
- Acorn is slated for £200m under the second phase of government CCS support, alongside £80m from the Scottish government, with work under way on the East Coast Cluster near Teesside and Humberside and the HyNet Cluster near Merseyside and north Wales.
- Friends of the Earth Scotland campaigner Rosie Hampton said over the summer that the government’s climate response rested on “fantasy plans” for turning the North Sea into Europe’s carbon dumping ground, calling instead for warm homes, better public transport and decent green jobs.
Why it matters: The £24bn CCS commitment and household heat-pump grants are competing claims on this week’s budget. Environmental groups want funds shifted toward proven climate solutions, while the CCSA says first projects have awarded £4bn to about 350 UK companies and support 5,500 jobs, making retrenchment a clash between climate spending and industrial policy.
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