Jobs and investment will move overseas if the Government pulls its funding for energy projects in the Humber, John Healey has been warned.
Sector leaders are hoping for good news in this month’s Budget regarding the carbon capture and storage project in the region, as well as its bid to become the UK’s first hydrogen network.
Rachel Reeves previously committed to supporting the Viking CCS plan, while the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is set to allocate £500m to the hydrogen network.
However, there are fears that investment could be pulled given the serious fiscal constraints the Chancellor is working with.
Writing in today’s Yorkshire Post, chair of the Humber Energy Board, Drax’s Richard Gwilliam said: “The choice is not between industry and decarbonisation. Britain’s industrial base will not remain competitive as international markets demand lower-carbon products.
“Without CCS and hydrogen, production and investment could move overseas, costing Britain jobs and offshoring emissions.
“The Humber has the industrial sites, ports, workforce, private-sector projects and access to the carbon storage needed to translate policy into economic activity. What it needs now is certainty.”
The region is the UK’s most carbon intensive industrial area and energy firms say the investment is essential to support the Government’s bid for clean energy by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
“Public support does not mean government funding every pound of every project,” Mr Gwilliam added.
“It means giving companies the confidence to invest their own capital.
“This is not simply an environmental commitment. It is central to the government’s growth mission.”
A DESNZ spokesperson said: “We are delivering the first ever industrial scale carbon capture projects in the UK supporting thousands of jobs across the country and reigniting our industrial heartlands.”