Committee recommends urgent work on bioenergy and CCS

The Committee on Climate Change published a report into the sustainable use of bioenergy in the UK on Wednesday 7 December. The Bioenergy Review urged the government to back bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. It said that in order to meet the government's 2050 emissions targets bioenergy will need to provide a 10% share of all energy across the UK. The 10% figure, around 200TWh, takes into account the sustainable share of global land use that could be put aside for growing energy crops, the report noted that a much more significant share would be needed if CCS technologies were not included. If CCS technology is available then the Committee recommended using biomass in power generation to achieve negative emissions, but said if it is not available then biomass use should be skewed towards providing heating and construction materials. The report recommended that support for biomass should be limited to small stations, or a small number of large stations. The Committee recommended the government acts now to strengthen regulatory frameworks surrounding the fuel to ensure its sustainability and step-up efforts to roll-out CCS technologies as a matter of urgency.
Committee