House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee Fifth Carbon Budget Enquiry

More than a decade of UK state R&D investment, totalling in excess of £250 million, has shown CCS to be effective, achievable and strategically beneficial to UK objectives. The cancellation in November 2015 of the UK Government's £1 billion CCS capital allocation is an unforeseen and fundamental change to UK energy and climate policy, carried out without consultation. UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advice was framed in expectation of UK CCS commercialisation programme delivery leading to routine delivery of the technology on electricity generation and some process industries towards 2030s. Removal of the CCS contribution towards the Fifth Carbon Budget and beyond severely limits flexibility in the delivery of other low-carbon generation, especially new nuclear where forecast delivery is increasingly in doubt - the CCC and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) should consider the impact of scenarios with no CCS and delayed nuclear capacity.More than a decade of UK state R&D investment, totalling in excess of £250 million, has shown CCS to be effective, achievable and strategically beneficial to UK objectives. The cancellation in November 2015 of the UK Government's £1 billion CCS capital allocation is an unforeseen and fundamental change to UK energy and climate policy, carried out without consultation. UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advice was framed in expectation of UK CCS commercialisation programme delivery leading to routine delivery of the technology on electricity generation and some process industries towards 2030s. Removal of the CCS contribution towards the Fifth Carbon Budget and beyond severely limits flexibility in the delivery of other low-carbon generation, especially new nuclear where forecast delivery is increasingly in doubt - the CCC and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) should consider the impact of scenarios with no CCS and delayed nuclear capacity