UK's 2050 CO2 goal to cost extra 30 billion pounds without CCS: report

LONDON (Reuters) - Meeting Britain's carbon emissions reduction target for 2050 will cost an additional 30 billion pounds ($40 billion) without large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, a report by the National Audit Office shows. The British government decided to withdraw 1 billion pounds of funding to help commercialize CCS technology in a spending review in November last year. CCS captures carbon dioxide and stores it underground to stop it escaping into the atmosphere. CCS is viewed as a way to decarbonize power generation and energy-intensive industries via deployment at gas- or coal-fired power stations or steel and chemicals plants. The technology is ready to pilot at power stations on a large scale, but the transportation and storage infrastructure needed requires a large up-front investment. The scrapping of CCS funding will likely delay deployment of the technology in Britain until 2030, rather than 2020, the report said. The audit office also said the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had advised the UK Treasury that it could cost the country an extra 30 billion pounds to meet its 2050 emissions cut target without large-scale deployment of CCS. "DECC's bid for power sector CCS showed a return of 4.50 pounds per pound invested, with most benefits arising after 2030. It estimated net social benefits of 3.7 billion pounds to 2050," the audit report said. "DECC calculated the benefits on the basis that without CCS it would cost an additional 30 billion pounds to meet the 2050 carbon targets," it added. The extra cost would arise because Britain would have to rely on a more expensive mix of renewable energy technologies to decarbonize the energy sector. Britain intends to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. (Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Dale Hudson)