Institution of Mechanical Engineers response to Government carbon capture funding announcement

In response to the announcement that the Government plans to add £20 million to the existing £100 million fund for carbon capture and storage technologies, Dr Jenifer Baxter, Head of Engineering at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:

“CCUS is a critical part of the future energy and industrial systems and the government is heading in the right direction with providing additional funding. However, the amounts are somewhat underwhelming and the translation into action in this sector is slow.

The UK is well-placed to lead the world in the development of carbon capture and storage technologies, which are considered critical for decarbonising our whole energy system. Deployment of demonstration plants and low carbon industrial clusters should form a central part of our industrial strategy. The renewed focus on CCUS, is welcome, but planning should be converted into action soon.

The scale of the challenge to reduce emissions has been highlighted several times in the last few months.

The UN’s IPPC report said that urgent and unprecedented changes are needed over the next decade to reach agreed international targets and the World Energy Outlook showed that fossil fuels are still accounting for 81% of global energy supply. This means that we need to focus funding on technology developments that are either low-carbon or extract emissions.”

Notes to Editors

• For interview requests and queries contact the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Press Office on 07990 566412 or email media@imeche.org.
• The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was established in 1847 and has some of the world’s greatest engineers in its history books. It is one of the fastest growing professional engineering institutions. Headquartered in London, we have operations around the world and over 120,000 members in more than 140 countries working at the heart of the most important and dynamic industries such as the automotive, rail, aerospace, medical, power and construction industries.