carbon capture and storage

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View the latest from the Committee – with Adrian’s monthly meeting round-up

June 21, 2010 in Chris Huhne, Climate Change Act, Government Policy, Low-carbon economy, Professor John Beddington, Uncategorized, carbon capture and storage, low carbon innovation by Committee on Climate Change | No comments

Adrian Gault - Chief Economist

Adrian Gault - Chief Economist

I’m the Chief Economist at the CCC. Each month, I will update you on the latest analytical discussions from our Committee.  Members of the Committee are experts in climate science, economics and engineering. They direct our work programme and each month, meet to review and debate emerging findings in order to ensure our work is robust and credible. They also guide and contribute to future work plans.

Top of the agenda in our latest meeting (11 June) was the Committee’s 2nd report to Parliament on the progress that has been made in meeting carbon budgets (to be published 30 June). The latest data that we have shows UK greenhouse gas emissions falling by 8.6% over the past year. The Committee debated what the key drivers might be behind this – is this reduction due to recessionary impacts or other factors, such as the implementation of new policy measures?

We also discussed some of the emerging messages from the work that we are doing to advise Government on the second phase cap (2013-18) for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency scheme (we are publishing a report on this in September).

The Committee has also been looking at how analytical work plans are developing for our 4th carbon budget  report (to be published by December). This report will include a review of developments in climate science since 2008, and will consider options – amongst other things – for heat decarbonisation in the 2020s (including the potential role of heat pumps and biomass), plus the potential for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology to be applied to gas generation (read our recent letter to Chris Huhne on this).

Lastly, the Committee were provided with an update on emerging findings from a report into low carbon innovation. Is the UK investing enough in the right technologies and research in order to meet carbon budgets? We were asked to conduct this review by the Government’s Chief Scientist Professor John Beddington. The report should be published in July.

These minutes will be agreed at the next meeting and made available in more detail on our website in July. For previous minutes of all of our Committee meetings please see our website. http://www.theccc.org.uk/about-the-ccc/minutes-of-meetings

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New study shows potential value of UK’s offshore wind

May 19, 2010 in Low-carbon economy, Offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, renewable energy by Committee on Climate Change | No comments

The Offshore Valuation Group, today publishes the first full economic valuation of the UK’s offshore renewable resource. The study was part-funded by the CCC, one of a range of commissioning organisations of the independent study, which included the  UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments, and eight energy companies.

The study suggests that the offshore renewable energy industry in the UK, using less than a third of the total available resource, could:

•    Generate electricity equivalent to1 billion barrels of oil annually, matching North Sea oil and gas production

•    Result in cumulative carbon dioxide savings of 1.1 billion tonnes by 2050

The report reveals that rapid development of the UK’s offshore resource – using fixed wind, floating wind, tidal stream, tidal range, and wave technologies – could by 2050 generate an amount of electricity equivalent to a billion barrels of oil per year, or the same as the average annual output of UK North Sea oil and gas production seen over the past four decades.

If developed still further to tap their full practical potential, offshore renewables would allow the UK to power itself six times over at current levels of demand.

Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change, David Kennedy said:

“In order to meet our climate goals, we need to decarbonise electricity. There is an important role for nuclear, renewables and Carbon Capture and Storage driving required power sector emissions cuts over the next two decades. This report reinforces the view that offshore renewables, and in particular offshore wind, could have a potentially major role to play”.

The full report is available for download from: www.offshorevaluation.org

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