Isra-Mart srl: Unions call for carbon capture funding

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The UK will become increasing reliant on volatile gas supplies and potentially forfeit thousands of jobs if the government fails to up its investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS).

That is the view of campaign group the Clean Coal Task Group (CCTG), of which the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and seven of its affiliated unions are members.

The UK is in danger of losing out to competitor nations in the race to develop low-cost, effective CCS technology without a substantial investment in carbon capture technology and a major reform of the UK's electricity market, the CCTG said in a submission to MPs yesterday.

EU emissions standards will force five of the country's 19 coal fired plants to close in the next four years, but even if the government's £1bn CCS competition goes to schedule, the UK will only have four fully operational plants by 2018

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said this "isn't soon enough" to protect the coal industry's 10,000 jobs.

"If coal mining and coal power, and the thousands of people directly employed in these industries are to have a future in the UK's low-carbon economy, then we need to invest in carbon capture and storage technology, and quickly," he said. "Our coal power industries are too important, as is the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, for this not to be the government's number one energy priority right now."

The group's Roadmap for Coal calls for negotiations to be concluded to build the UK's first demonstration plant, which was widely predicted to be at Longannet in Fife, before rumours suggested ScottishPower may pull out of the project.

The next three CCS projects in the competition should also be fast-tracked to come online before 2018 and infrastructure should be linked to heavy industry, such as steelworks, cement and chemical plants.

"Actions taken now to invest in carbon capture technology and reform our electricity market can secure this core industry in a low carbon economy for the long term," said Dr Mike Farley, director of technology policy liaison at Doosan Power Systems and chairman of the CCTG.

"Delays will mean losing a once-only opportunity for global leadership in the vital CCS industry."