Carbon Capturing Technologies Allow Polluters Avoid Climate Action, MPs Caution

MPs in the UK are concerned over energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng's plans to burn wood pellets and capture the emissions in the atmosphere to facilitate the nation to meet its climate targets. The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee comprising MPs cautioned that capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground would result in emitters moving away from targets and dodging their responsibilities.

The UK and EU say burning wood to create electricity is renewable because both believe that trees re-absorb the carbon when they grow back. The industry could generate "negative emissions" when combining bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that could offset pollution in other places.

The committee raised some concerns in its letter about the additional emissions from transporting the woody biomass and the permanent storage of carbon under the ground. It also notes that increasing competition for land to produce the woody biomass could affect food prices and biodiversity.

Conservative MP and committee member Duncan Baker said: "claims that biomass with carbon capture is carbon negative are questionable."

Bioenergy has already been controversial for many years, with scientists fearing that it takes a lot of time for new trees to re-capture the emissions from the burning wood, or it could never happen, for instance, if the woodland suffers an epidemic outbreak or a wildfire.

The industry believes the hurdles are entirely economic rather than technological and asks for support from the government to take the plan forward.

According to a spokesperson for Drax, a power giant, their planned BECCS plant would get rid of millions of tonnes of CO2 from the air, which will help support the UK's net-zero target. They source low-grade materials such as sawmill residues, diseased trees or forest waste for their woody biomass, and the usage will not cause deforestation.

The government and independent climate advisors have presented a role for BECCS in the country's efforts to achieve net-zero emissions.

MPs say it is significant to offset emissions from hard to abate sectors like steel and the government has to review its approach when it comes to the current policies as they lack direction and clarity.