In its effort to shift to a low carbon economy, the government is exploring new carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to mitigate CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel power stations.

A new policy insight from think tank Green Alliance highlights that CCS is the only technology available to decarbonise heavy industry to the extent needed to meet carbon targets and protect the UK from climate change.

Three steps are recommended for the government to ensure an economically viable future for CCS:

1. Piggy back industrial CCS clusters on existing CCS demonstration plants
2. Foster competition between different CCS technologies to bring the price down
3. Create a new funding mechanism for CCS