CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE AND DEMAND RATIONING

Early day motion 1479, tabled 13 May 2009 by Rudi Vis (Labour). Signed by 11 members.

That this House recognises that the Government's proposal for new coal-fired power stations trialling a degree of carbon capture and storage (CCS), potentially fully retrofitted by 2025, would be a significant improvement in terms of rules, but would still involve a new wave of largely uncaptured emissions; notes that the Committee on Climate Change has recommended that no coal-fired plant should operate without full CCS by 2025; further notes Scottish Power's call for CCS to be trialled via support for retrofits to existing plant; urges the Government to consider instead addressing the energy gap and fuel poverty concerns largely via a demand rationing-type approach, for example introducing a tax-free allowance for personal electricity use, with tax take concentrated on the excess, facilitated by the rollout of smart meters; further notes that Vaclav Smil's calculation that to bury just 10 per cent. of the world's current carbon dioxide emissions via CCS would involve pumping carbon dioxide underground at a faster rate than all current world crude oil extraction; and considers that rationing-type approaches may have more far-reaching abatement potential than CCS, and so to address the energy gap largely via a rationing-type approach, whilst pioneering CCS out of a smaller network of power stations, would set a much more powerful and apposite example to the rest of the world, as well as achieve faster progress in tackling UK emissions.

Signatures by party: Labour 8, Conservative 1, Independent 1, Liberal Democrat 1.