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The University of Southampton
Clean Carbon

The Policy Exchange forum: Rethinking CO2 How can we put it to use?

Published: 7 June 2016
policy exchange
Twitterfeed Photo credit: @Policy_Exchange

A packed Westminster meeting on 7 June heard Climate Change Champion, Lord Deben, say that the UK cannot reach climate targets without CO 2 utilisation and storage. A lively debate followed as speakers Professor Peter Styring, Sheffield; Professor Colin Hills, Greenwich (and Founder Director of Carbon8 Systems); Luke Warren, Chief Executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and Richard Howard, Head of Environment and Energy, Policy Exchange set out challenges, innovative technologies, salient facts and figures and above all, potential for treating CO 2 as a resource rather than a waste product.

Chair of the University’s Clean Carbon USRG, Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong (second from the front on the left) specialises in carbon capture research and fellow attendee Dr Pier Sazio, who (in tandem with Dr Robert Raja) co-leads Clean Carbon’s Utilisation research theme, found the meeting thought provoking and it granted an opportunity to network and share concerns about the future of carbon capture and storage (CCS) after recent government decisions.

deben
Speaker, The Rt Hon Lord Deben PC, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change

In his blog the next day, Richard Howard, said:

“It was a fascinating and thought provoking debate. The speakers agreed that Carbon Capture and Utilisation offers significant potential to achieve decarbonisation goals and create a sustainable future for industry – but that there is a risk that the UK gets left behind in the development of these technologies. The speakers offered a number of suggestions for how policymakers could accelerate development of CCU technologies including:

  • Government commitment to decarbonisation (in general) and to CCU technology specifically
  • Establishing a more robust carbon price to create a market for re-use of CO2
  • Creating a level playing field for CCU against other decarbonisation opportunities
  • More research and development funding for CCU technologies, in particular to drive down the cost of carbon capture
  • More work to increase public acceptance of carbon capture and utilisation / storage”

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