NEWS UPDATE: East Coast Cluster welcomes announcement of £20 billion in funding for UK CCUS

15 March, 2023  – We warmly welcome today’s news from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has announced in today’s budget £20 billion in funding to support carbon capture and storage projects across the United Kingdom.

This major package confirms the UK Government’s commitment to CCUS and helps decarbonise our economy, maximise economic opportunities and helps the UK reach its net zero target by 2050. It also gives a key advantage to the UK as we look to lead the world in the carbon capture market and recognizes the need for further investment in innovative technology to support a clean energy transition.

The investment will greatly benefit the East Coast Cluster, and helps achieve our goal of creating and supporting thousands of highly skilled jobs across the Teesside and Humber regions, and our aim to capture an average of 23 million tonnes of CO2 per by year by 2035.

We look forward to hearing more from the UK Government and await the selection of capture projects by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as part of the Track 1 Project Negotiation List.

ENDS

The East Coast Cluster, enabled by the Northern Endurance Partnership, unites the Humber and Teesside with infrastructure to decarbonise industry and establish a platform for economic growth.

The East Coast Cluster represents the UK’s biggest opportunity to:

• Decarbonise industry: potential to tackle almost 50% of the UK’s total industrial cluster CO2 emissions.
• Support levelling-up: creating and supporting an average of 25,000 jobs per year to 2050, with approximately 41,000 jobs at the project’s peak in 2026, underpinning new low carbon industries in the north of England.
• Kick-start a hydrogen economy: delivering low-carbon hydrogen projects in both the Humber & Teesside, delivering up to 70% of the UK’s 10GW blue hydrogen target for 2030.
• Demonstrate global leadership: establishing the Humber and Teesside as globally competitive low carbon hubs for industry and innovation, creating international momentum towards net zero.