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UK Secretary of State Chris Huhne launches global carbon capture and storage initiative

20 July 2010

Chris Huhne, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, today announced an international programme working with other countries to enhance and deploy carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Speaking at the inaugural Clean Energy Ministerial convened by US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in Washington DC, Huhne said that the new ‘Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Action group’ (CCUS) would bring together governments, businesses and other key stakeholders in a regular forum to debate, inform and help execute plans to accelerate CCS deployment between now and 2020.

Huhne emphasised the importance of CCS technology in enabling greenhouse mitigation and said that the UK government was already committed to implementing four CCS demonstration projects in the UK. He added that key challenges remain however, including the need for governments to establish the necessary regulatory and incentive structures to drive forward deployment and for greater efforts to bring nascent carbon sequestration technologies to maturation.

An array of other initiatives were announced at the Ministerial including in the areas of wind and solar cooperation, smart meters, electric vehicles and improving off-grid energy access in developing countries.  Secretary Chu also announced a new Global Energy Efficiency Initiative, which foresees improvements in consumer appliance efficiency standards and reductions in energy consumption in building and industrial facilities.