The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has called on government to “end the fossil fuel age” to bring about a secure and prosperous future.
In its latest advice to government, it has pitched a “new pathway to a decarbonised UK”, calling for emissions to reduce by 87% on 1990 levels by 2040. This would see electrification accounting for the majority (60%) of emissions reductions by 2040 and is very achievable, with the roll out of technologies required similar to what has occurred in comparable countries and previous technology roll outs in the UK and promises savings over time.
If following this pathway, the CCC says it will bring about cheaper bills, with a collective £1,400 across energy and driving by 2050, and energy security, with average household energy bills 15 times less sensitive in 2040 to spikes in gas prices. The private sector is also expected to fund the majority of it (65-90%) with public spend never exceeding 2% of total managed public expenditure as per the CCC’s pathway.
So, how do hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) filter into all of this? While deeming there to be “no role” for hydrogen in home heating and only “a very niche” role in surface transport, a range of low carbon fuels are set to make a crucial contribution to areas less suited to electrification through the pathway. Hydrogen and CCS both are invaluable here.
In 2040, the CCC’s pathway sees hydrogen playing a “small but important role” Industrial sectors such as ceramics and chemical production are where hydrogen could particularly find a home, while it also stands to be a key source of long-term storable energy in the electricity supply sector, one that can be dispatched when needed and as a feedstock for synthetic fuels.
CCS, meanwhile, will be used in industrial subsectors with process emissions where alternatives will not likely be available. This includes the chemicals and cement and lime industries. It will also be used to enable long-term storable, dispatchable power in the electricity supply sector, like hydrogen, to actually make low-carbon hydrogen and underpin engineered removals. The CCC stressed it “cannot see a route to net zero that does not include CCS” even if its role will be limited to sectors with few, or no alternatives.
