Ed Miliband has launched a £22billion carbon capture plant after 20 years of delays.
The Energy Secretary has said that Labour has now agreed on a deal to build Teesside facilities to capture and store emissions.
Keir Starmer initially announced the plans earlier this week, which is set to create 2,000 jobs and might lead to even more jobs through new projects. Another project has been planned in Merseyside.
Delays have stemmed from years of Government negotiation over two decades since ministers on both sides of the Commons have struggled to balance the massive expense of the innovative tech alongside the necessity of low-carbon electricity.
Labour will work with energy companies BP, Equinor and Total, which will be responsible to build and co-fund the project, beginning in 2028
PA
The plan is to build a gas-fired power station in the northeast that will capture and compress any waste gases by liquefaction.
Then, the gases will be buried in subsea rock formations after it is pumped into the North Sea.
Labour will work with energy companies BP, Equinor and Total, which will be responsible for building and co-funding the project, beginning in 2028.
As a result, NZT Power – a company co-established by BP and Equinor – will build the station that is intended to generate one million homes across Teesside, as well as produce up to two million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year (that will be captured rather than emitted).
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On Tuesday, Starmer said: “Today’s investment is proof that this Government is investing in the industries of the future; that means thousands of jobs secured in the North East and across the UK for years to come.”
Miliband added: “This investment launches a new era for clean energy in Britain.
“This is the Government’s mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower in action; replacing Britain’s energy insecurity with homegrown clean power that rebuilds the strength of our industrial heartlands.”
The country’s offshore oil and gas giants have criticised politicians for inflicting windfall taxes upon their profits, as well as blocking new oil and gas licenses.
The Government is now seeking to cut carbon emissions by 95 per cent by the end of the decade.
The Government is now seeking to cut carbon emissions by 95 per cent by the end of the decade
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In response to the news, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage launched a vicious attack on Miliband’s shiny new project, dismissing it as an “ideological gamble” with taxpayers’ money.
Speaking on the People’s Channel, the Clacton MP expressed concerns about the massive investment in technology, saying: “I really, really worry that this is £22billion of money being spent ideologically, with absolutely no evidence that it’s going to work.”
Pointing to international examples, he added that a carbon capture scheme is yet to actually work.
He explained: “When you look at Canada, you look at America and elsewhere around the world, you realise that no carbon capture scheme as yet has ever actually worked in any way at all.”
