Government needs to ensure consumers and taxpayers benefit financially from carbon capture
The drive towards net zero comes with plenty of opportunities but the key question is who benefits from said opportunities?
That is certainly at the heart of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report into carbon capture technologies.
No one in their right minds would have expected tackling climate change to be cheap or easy. While there are preventative measures everyone can take, it is abundantly clear that new technologies will need to progress in order to ensure a meaningful change.
Therefore it would be bordering on the reckless to throttle back on innovations such as carbon capture.
Ultimately, the Government and the industry has to collectively roll the dice and put money towards carbon capture.
However, when the PAC’s inquiry finds that neither of the contracts for the two new carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) projects include any provision for the Government to share the profits or for consumers to benefit from lower energy bills should things go well, then there is naturally going to be alarm amongst the public.
It seems very much a case of the taxpayer shouldering the early burden with no direct reward if the potential for profit is reached.
There is a concern that it could lead to a not too dissimilar situation to what people are seeing in the water industry, where carbon capture becomes a cash cow for faceless fat cats.
The PAC report is right to call on the Government to introduce mechanisms to make sure taxpayers and consumers benefit financially from the success of all future CCUS projects that they have supported.
It is also important that the industry produces a strategy that not only shows the efficacy of carbon capture in reducing pollution but also how consumers stand to benefit from the nascent technology.