Clause 16
Energy Bill
2:45 pm
Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)
We now move on to carbon capture and storage. The debate has often been ahead of me on this one and, indeed, ahead of the Bill, although there have been one or two cases in which it has been appropriate to discuss CCS alongside other activities relating to gas. Therefore some background will perhaps be helpful.
CCS with power generation involves capturing carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released from fossil fuel power stations and storing it permanently in geological formations such as depleted oil and gas fields. Although CCS is considered a promising climate change mitigation measure, it has yet to be demonstrated in relation to a commercial-scale power station. CCS has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power stations by up to 90 per cent., which is a key reason why it has created such interest, not least in Parliament.