Whitehall inertia ‘could cost region huge clean coal cash injection’

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies said the Government now has little more than a fortnight to make a final commitment to match-fund an EU scheme to inject cash into carbon capture and storage (CCS) schemes.

A proposed clean coal power station at Hatfield in South Yorkshire has already been rated by the EU as a top potential CCS project, best placed to receive funds. CCS power stations at Drax in Selby and Killingholme on the southern bank of the Humber are also in the running.

The Government set aside £1bn in 2008 for CCS projects, but has yet to decide which to fund.

Mr Davies, who helped set up the EU scheme, said the UK must give confirmation to Brussels before the end of the month or miss out altogether.

“This is crunch time for CCS, and Ministers need to knock heads together to make sure Britain doesn’t miss the CCS boat again,” he said. “There’s hundreds of millions of pounds of funding available, and we can’t afford to procrastinate if we want to build and industry that would create jobs and bring investment to the country, as well as helping to fight climate change.

The Government insists it is aware of the time constraints and said it has received a letter from the European Commission setting out what is required.

A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said: “DECC will respond to the Commission’s letter later this month. We are fully aware of their processes and we’ve always made clear that we intend to align with the timetable.”