UK axes carbon capture scheme
Britain has quietly cancelled a competition to develop carbon capture and storage technology, reversing support for a tool intended to help combat global warming ahead of a climate summit in Paris next week.
The change was announced to the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday as finance minister George Osborne revealed a much-awaited budget update to parliament that vowed to increase investment in energy research.
Proponents of CCS technology -- which aims to capture emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants and prevent it entering the atmosphere and causing the planet to warm -- reacted with dismay to the announcement that funding was no longer available for the £1.0 billion scheme.
"Moving the goalposts just at the time when a four-year competition is about to conclude is an appalling way to do business," said Luke Warren, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.
He warned that Britain would lose the opportunity to develop cost effective methods of reducing carbon emissions, calling the announcement "devastating", while industry group EEF said the decision would cost much more than it would save in the long term.
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