Carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers a seemingly miraculous solution to the climate crisis. Against a backdrop of global CO2 levels continuing to rise year-on-year, CCS allows us to capture that CO2 at the source of emission, liquefy it, and pump it into underground geological formations.
The UK government has come out as a major champion of the technology. On its so-called “Green Day” of net zero policy announcements in March, up to £20bn was promised in support of CCS, and eight CCS projects were selected for state support. This week the government announced that projects in the Humber and Aberdeenshire have been chosen as the next CCS initiatives to be developed in the UK, alongside the expansion of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, in the name of Britain's energy security.