To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the development of carbon capture and storage technologies. (264695)

The Government’s policy on carbon, capture and storage was most recently set out in the Energy White Paper, 2007 and the “Carbon Abatement Technology (CAT) Strategy for Fossil Fuel Use in the UK”, 2005. These policies were underpinned by a number of studies and reports, some specifically commissioned by the Government such as:

Review on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), 2003:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file21887.pdf

The Role of Fossil Fuel Carbon Abatement Technologies in a Low Carbon Energy System—A Report on Analysis Undertaken to Advise on DTI’s CAT Strategy, 2005:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file19834.pdf

Industrial Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential in the UK, 2006:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file35684.pdf.

The Government also take account of the work of others such as the:

IEA Energy Technologies Perspectives http://www.iea.org/Textbase/techno/etp/index.asp

European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Plans—CO₂ Capture and Storage (CCS) Matrix of Technologies

Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum

Most recently, the Advisory Committee on Carbon Abatement Technologies (ACCAT) has set out its views on how Government should review their CAT Strategy in its advisory document on “Accelerating the Deployment of Carbon Abatement Technologies with special focus on Carbon Capture and Storage, 2009”:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file50028.pdf.

The Government will be taking this into account as they develop their future policies on CCS.