Connect with us

Published

on

The government has pledged nearly £22bn to fund projects that capture greenhouse gases from polluting plants and store them underground, as it races to reach strict climate targets.

The plans are designed to generate private investment and jobs in Merseyside and Teesside, two industry-heavy areas that will be home to the new “carbon capture clusters”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the move was “reigniting our industrial heartlands by investing in the industry of the future”, though there are questions about how best to use this expensive technology.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) has been developed to combat climate change.

It captures the planet-warming carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels or from heavy industry, and puts it to use or stores it underground.

How CCUS can work, by capturing the carbon dioxide emissions from something like a gas plant or cement factory, transporting them through existing gas pipes, and storing them in a depleted oil or gas field under the sea.
Image:
How CCUS can work, by capturing the carbon dioxide emissions from something like a gas plant or cement factory, transporting them through existing gas pipes, and storing them in a depleted oil or gas field under the sea

It is expensive and difficult, but the UK’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), and United Nations scientists say it is essential to get the world to net zero, which the UK is targeting for 2050.

Net zero means cutting emissions as much as possible and offsetting or capturing the stubborn remaining ones.

More on Climate Change

Today the government has committed up to £21.7bn over 25 years, to be given in subsidies to sites in the Teesside and Merseyside “clusters” – from 2028.

Analysis: After warning of tightened purse strings, the public may well be perplexed by Reeves

It will be split between three projects, which are capturing carbon dioxide released either from making hydrogen, generating gas power or burning waste to create energy from 2028.

The gas – up to 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions – will be locked away in empty gas fields in the Liverpool Bay and the North Sea.

The government hopes it will attract £8bn in private investment, create 4,000 direct jobs and support a further 50,000.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Can carbon capture help fight climate change?

The cash will pay for fewer projects than hoped – the last government suggested a £20bn pot of money for similar projects – but the new administration says those plans weren’t properly costed, and the funding hadn’t been allocated.

The funding is to come from a mixture of Treasury money and energy bills, but the government has been coy about the split so far.

Sir Keir said the announcement will “give industry the certainty it needs” and “help deliver jobs, kickstart growth, and repair this country once and for all”.

Will it help jobs and business?

It hopes to fund the first large scale hydrogen production plant in the UK, and help the oil and gas sector and its transferable skills move over to green industries.

It has been welcomed by industry and the unions, coming just a week after job losses from the closures of Port Talbot Steelworks and Ratcliffe coal power station.

GMB general secretary Gary Smith said the news “shows what levelling up can really mean: good, well paid jobs reinvigorating communities”.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Does carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) work?

CCUS has made slow progress: promised for decades but barely scaled, with just 45 commercial sites globally.

However, it began to pick up in the last few years, with 700 plants now in some stage of development around the world.

The world’s first CCUS plant has stored CO2 under Norway’s waters since 1996, though elsewhere a few concerns linger about whether some projects leak gas.

James Richardson, acting chief executive of the CCC, said: “We can’t hit the country’s targets without CCUS, so this commitment to it is very reassuring”.

How should CCUS be used?

Some believe expensive CCUS should be preserved for areas like cement or lime-production, that are very hard to clean up in any other way, rather than for sectors for which there are greener alternatives.

Greenpeace UK’s Doug Parr warned of a “risk of locking ourselves into second-rate solutions”.

The government hopes this funding for the three sites that are ready to go will lay the foundations for further CCUS projects.

Continue Reading

Business

Water companies blocked from using customer cash for ‘undeserved’ bonuses

Published

on

By

Water companies blocked from using customer cash for 'undeserved' bonuses

Nine water companies have been blocked from using customer money to fund “undeserved” bonuses by the industry’s regulator.

Ofwat said it had stepped in to use its new powers over water firms that cannot show that bonuses are sufficiently linked to performance.

The blocked payouts amount to 73% of the total executive awards proposed across the industry.

The regulator has prevented crisis-hit Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water from paying £1.5m in bonuses from cash generated from customer bills.

It said a further six firms have voluntarily decided not to push the cost of executive bonuses worth a combined £5.2m on to customers.

Instead, shareholders at Anglian Water, Severn Trent, South West, Southern Water, United Utilities and Wessex will pay the cost.

Money blog: Seven deals to avoid on Black Friday – and alternative buys

David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, said: “In stopping customers from paying for undeserved bonuses that do not properly reflect performance, we are looking to sharpen executive mindsets and push companies to improve their performance and culture of accountability.

“While we are starting to see companies take some positive steps, they need to do more to rebuild public trust.”

The announcement came in an Ofwat update on firms’ financial resilience and bonuses.

Industry lobby group Water UK said: “Almost all water company bonuses are already paid by shareholders, not customers.

“All companies recognise the need to do more to deliver on their plans to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers.

“We now need the regulator Ofwat to fully approve water companies’ £108bn investment plans so that we can get on with it.

“Ofwat’s financial resilience report provides yet more evidence that the current system isn’t working, with returns down to 2% and eight companies making a loss.

“It is clear we need a faster and simpler system which allows companies to deliver for customers, the environment and the country.”

Continue Reading

Business

Google could be forced to sell its Chrome browser over internet search monopoly claims

Published

on

By

Google could be forced to sell its Chrome browser over internet search monopoly claims

Google must sell its Chrome browser to restore competition in the online search market, US prosecutors have argued.

The proposed breakup has been floated in a 23-page document filed by the US Justice Department.

It also calls for lawmakers to impose restrictions designed to prevent its Android smartphone software from favouring its own search engine.

If the rules were brought in, it would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years.

Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% on smartphones.

Read more:
School smartphone ban will not become law after MP drops proposal
Grieving parents tell Ofcom to ‘step up’ over social media content

Court papers filed on Wednesday expand on an earlier outline for what prosecutors argued would dilute that monopoly.

More on Google

Google called the proposals radical at the time, saying they would harm US consumers and businesses and shake American competitiveness in AI.

The company has said it will appeal.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a coalition of states want US District Judge Amit Mehta to end exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to be the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.

Google will have a chance to present its own proposals in December.

A trial on the proposals has been set for April, however President-elect Donald Trump and the DoJ’s next antitrust head could step in.

Continue Reading

Business

Dozens of partners take early retirement from accountancy giant PwC

Published

on

By

Dozens of partners take early retirement from accountancy giant PwC

Dozens of partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Britain’s biggest accountancy firm, will next month take early retirement as its new boss takes steps to boost its performance.

Sky News has learnt that PwC’s 1,030 UK partners were notified earlier this week that a larger-than-usual round of partner retirements would take place at the end of the year.

Sources said the round would involve several dozen partners – who command average pay packages of about £1m – leaving the firm.

PwC named about 60 new partners earlier this year under Marco Amitrano, who was appointed as its new UK boss in the spring.

Mr Amitrano is understood to have informed partners about the changes in a voice memo, although one insider disputed the idea that the numbers involved were “significant”.

The partner retirements come as the big four audit firms contend with a sizeable bill from increases in the Budget in employers’ national insurance contributions.

It emerged this week that Deloitte is cutting nearly 200 jobs in its advisory business, according to the Financial Times.

More from Money

An ongoing shake-up of the audit profession is not being restricted to the big four firms, with Sky News revealing on Wednesday that Cinven, the private equity firm, was in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in Grant Thornton UK.

The deal, which is expected to value Grant Thornton at somewhere in the region of £1.5bn, was announced on Thursday morning.

PwC declined to comment.

Continue Reading

Trending