UKCCSC News 15 October 2007

Hi Folks,

Sorry to fill your in-trays with News bulletins, but the first piece of news may be of immediate interest to those with political inclinations.

After the UK Government’s announcement that only post-combustion capture CCS schemes would be eligible for the long-awaited competition (see last CCS News), there has been an immediate reaction from the power companies:

1) Backlash against carbon capture plan, Financial Times

“Several energy groups led by Centrica are preparing to challenge a government plan for subsidising low-emission power generation, accusing ministers of poor consultation and potentially wasting taxpayers’ money. John Hutton, the business and enterprise secretary, announced on Tuesday that the government would subsidise only one “carbon capture and storage” power plant, to be chosen through a competition among energy suppliers. However, he drew fierce criticism from sections of the industry and the carbon markets by stipulating that the support would be awarded only to companies using “post-combustion” carbon capture techniques at a coal-fired plant. The result is that many companies’ plans have been suddenly made ineligible.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/028e0a9a-7838-11dc-8e4c-0000779fd2ac.html

(some readers may see humour in the advert for a Hummer embedded in the above article. Sadly I got a different advert when I went back to the site)

For more of the same see: http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/1011ukg.html

Or even here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/12/cngreen112.xml

Actually, it has been suggested that so many of the proposals are now ineligible that there is no longer a competition, as such. Oh dear.

2) 5% of world CO2 emissions are from the cement industry - The unheralded polluter: cement industry comes clean on its impact, Guardian

“No company will make carbon-neutral cement any time soon. The manufacturing process depends on burning vast amounts of cheap coal to heat kilns to more than 1,500C. It also relies on the decomposition of limestone, a chemical change which frees carbon dioxide as a byproduct.”

CCS is mentioned as a potential solution, but you need to read a long way down the article. It sounds like a problem looking for a solution – somebodies next research project perhaps?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/12/climatechange