UK, Italy's Eni unveil deal on carbon capture project

LONDON: The UK government and Italian energy company Eni Thursday announced a deal to create a major carbon capture and storage network to store millions of tonnes of CO 2 beneath the Irish Sea.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer set out the deal at an energy summit in London.

"Earlier today, we finalised a deal with Eni, it will see them award £2 billion ($2.6 billion) in supply chain contracts for the high net carbon capture and storage project, creating 2,000 jobs across north Wales and the North West,"

Eni said it had reached "financial" closure with the UK government's department of energy security and net zero for the Liverpool Bay carbon capture and storage project.

The agreement would allow the project "to move into the construction phase, unlocking key investments in supply chain contracts," it added.

The Labour government said in October it plans to invest nearly £22 billion over 25 years to develop carbon capture and storage in two former industrial regions of northern Britain, to help the nation reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The government did not specify the exact amount that will be allocated to the Eni project.

The country was launching a "whole new clean energy industry for our country, carbon capture and storage" to "revitalise our industrial communities", energy secretary Ed Miliband said.

CCS is a technology that seeks to eliminate emissions created by burning fuels for energy and from industrial processes.

The carbon is captured from emissions from industrial sites such as power plants, cement plants and blast furnaces and stored permanently in various underground environments.

Eni plans to store 4.5 million tonnes of CO 2 per year, a quantity that could rise to 10 million after 2030, equivalent to the emissions of four million cars.

Although complex and costly, the CCS solution is supported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly as a way of reducing the footprint of industries that are difficult to decarbonise, such as cement and steel, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.

Environmental non-governmental organisations, however, have criticised the UK's huge investment in the sector, calling for a focus on renewable energies.

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in February also raised concerns, describing the "government's backing of unproven, first-of-a-kind technology" to reach net zero as "high-risk".

According to the International Energy Agency, the world's total CO 2 capture capacity currently stands at only 50.5 million tonnes per year. This represents 0.1 percent of the world's annual total emissions.