Carbon capture is vital to securing the economy and enabling British businesses to thrive - Olivia Powis
Britain is in a global race for the industries, jobs and investment of the future. To win that race, we must ensure our manufacturers can make low-carbon products competitively here at home.
This might sound like a climate policy issue, but it’s far more than that. It’s an economic imperative to safeguard the future of British industry. Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is a crucial linchpin of our competitiveness. It will allow the UK’s vital industries to produce the low-carbon materials increasingly demanded by global markets and ensure we keep making them on British soil.
Heavy industries, such as cement, chemicals and refining, cannot simply switch to renewable power or efficiency measures to eliminate their emissions. In many of these processes, carbon dioxide is an unavoidable by-product. Yet we need these sectors, as they provide materials and fuels essential to modern life, from concrete for our infrastructure to fuel for transport and defence.
The urgent question is how to keep these essential industries and their jobs in Britain while slashing emissions. For many of these industries, CCUS is one of the only realistic solutions. By capturing CO₂ from industrial processes and storing it safely underground, CCUS allows them to cut emissions drastically without shutting down plants or moving production overseas.
Make no mistake, demand for low-carbon products is real and growing. This isn’t some distant ambition, it’s happening now. From construction firms building homes and roads to the defence sector fuelling its operations, buyers are starting to insist on cleaner materials.
Meanwhile, our trading partners are introducing carbon border measures to penalise high-emission imports. If British industry fails to decarbonise, our goods will face higher costs and new trade barriers, and the price of inaction will be paid in lost investment and jobs overseas.
We can’t let that happen. The UK has a choice - create the conditions now for low-carbon industries to thrive here or watch those industries and their jobs drift to other shores.
The good news is that the first CCUS projects in the UK are now underway in the North West, North Wales and Teesside. These pioneering projects are already bringing investment to our industrial heartlands, supporting roughly 5,000 construction jobs and £4bn in supply chain contracts. Over 300 UK subcontracts have been awarded through these first projects – creating local growth and jobs. When I took a group of apprentices and young engineers from these projects to Parliament recently, they spoke passionately about the skilled, well-paid jobs they’re starting in CCUS. It was a powerful reminder that carbon capture is about creating careers and revitalising industrial regions.
Britain has natural advantages that make us well placed to lead in this field. We have world-class offshore engineering expertise and a highly skilled workforce built over decades in the North Sea. We also have a tremendous asset beneath the seabed - vast geological formations able to store billions of tonnes of CO₂. Few nations enjoy such a combination. If we seize the opportunity, the UK can establish itself as a global leader in carbon capture and low-carbon manufacturing, drawing investment and jobs for decades.
But we can’t be complacent. Industrial investments are decided for the long term, and companies will only commit to buying low-carbon products and investing in CCUS if they believe Britain is in it for the long haul.
Olivia Powis is the CEO of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA).