Labour’s carbon capture plan guarantees jobs, if not savings

As Budget day looms Labour is seeking to fill holes left by the previous government – including under the UK’s seabed. It has greenlit £22 billion to fund two projects that capture carbon from the air and store it in depleted oil and gas reserves off the coast. Whether carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a good use of taxpayer money isn’t clear. The investment runs over 25 years, paid out for each tonne of CO2 captured. Once running, it could sequester 8.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year (last year the UK emitted the equivalent of 384 million tonnes). Some argue that investment might be better spent on keeping pensioners warm: an Oxford University study found that after 40 years of trials, estimates of the costs of CCS have declined by exactly zero. But perhaps cost is not the point. “It is the jobs that matter,” said chancellor Rachel Reeves. The hubs in Merseyside and Teeside are expected to directly create 4,000 new roles.