Victory for North West Euro-MP in clean coal deal

European governments have agreed to invest up to €6 billion in the development of clean coal technology, the largest programme in the world.

Proposals from the European Commission for the selection of carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects were accepted at a meeting last night (Tuesday) in Brussels.

The decision represented a victory for North West Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Chris Davies, who first introduced the idea of securing funding for the work from the sale of surplus CO2 allowances.

Davies, who took key legislation through the European Parliament in 2008, described his success at the time as "the most important achievement of his life."

CCS technology removes CO2 from the coal or gas used in power stations and industrial plants for permanent burial deep underground.  It is regarded as one of the main hopes for reducing huge quantities of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

The plan now agreed is to have up to 12 large scale demonstration plants in operation by 2015.  Up to three of them are likely to be built in Britain.

Welcoming the decision, Davies criticised delays already incurred and called for the programme to be accelerated.

He said: "It took just 3 months for Prime Ministers to accept the principle of the funding mechanism I proposed, but it has taken 13 months to gain approval for the details. 

"Europe says it wants to lead the world in the development of 'green' technology but we will only do that if we speed up our decision-taking process."

The MEP claimed that Britain was ideally placed for CCS development, with huge coal reserves and CO2 storage sites beneath the North Sea.

The Government has already announced that it intends to introduce a levy on electricity bills to pay for the UK's share of the cost of developing CCS plants.”

Previous stories and documents about CCS technology can be found at:
http://www.winwithchris.org.uk/news/2009/October/hatfield.html