ETZ Ltd Chairman, Sir Ian Wood, said: “We are hugely disappointed at the decision of the UK Government not to approve the Scottish Cluster as part of the CCS track 1 programme. This makes little economic or environmental sense and is a real blow to Scotland.
“Scotland is the most cost-effective place to begin CCUS in the UK given the capacity for CO2 storage in the North Sea and the existing oil and gas infrastructure available to repurpose for CO2 transport and storage. Vitally, there is also a huge opportunity for oil and gas firms, domestic supply chain companies and our wider economy to harness the skills and expertise of our current workforce to create many good, green jobs in the coming years and contribute significantly to the net zero ambition.
“The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has stated that “CCS is a necessity not an option” to achieve net zero targets and if we are serious about decarbonisation then we must move much more quickly and comprehensively than we have done to date.
“We have previously made clear that there is a strong case for five or six clusters to be backed now to encourage collaboration across the UK and to accelerate these efforts. At the very least I urge the UK Government to reconsider their decision and add a third cluster to the track 1 programme which should undoubtedly be the excellent Scottish bid.”