Committee on Climate Change
Independent advisors to the UK Government on tackling and preparing for climate change
Committee advises Government to consider extending CCS demos and Emissions Performance Standard to cover gas generation |
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The Committee wrote to Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne this month, to ask him to consider extending the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) competition to include gas as well as coal demonstration projects, and to consider extending the proposed Emissions Performance Standard to cover new gas plant added to the system from 2020. The letter, from Lord Adair Turner, recommends a coherent approach to all conventional fossil fuel generation (i.e. coal and gas), building on the current – coal focused – approach, which would ensure that by the 2020’s no new unabated fossil fuel generation could be added to the grid. CCS is a technology, which if proven at large-scale could very significantly reduce emissions of carbon from burning coal and gas to produce electricity. The Committee’s analysis shows that the path to meeting the UK’s 2050 target to reduce emissions by 80% requires that the power sector is largely decarbonised in the period to 2030 (e.g. average emissions should be around 100 g/kWh in 2030, compared to around 500 g/kWh today). Chief Executive David Kennedy said: “In order to meet our climate change targets, we need to invest in low carbon power generation. New conventional gas generation is required to maintain security of supply over the next ten years. Beyond that, further investment in conventional gas would conflict with required decarbonisation of the power sector by 2030. We are recommending that investment in conventional gas after 2020 should be ruled out, and that this should be replaced with investment in gas CCS and other low carbon technologies. We are making the recommendation now given the need to move forward with the second CCS competition and to promote debate around proposed new energy legislation.” |
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