Going Negative
Policy Proposals for UK Bioenergy With Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
REA Position Paper
Bioenergy paired with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies has the potential to play a critical role in meeting the UK’s net zero ambitions, but achieving this potential involves immediate action at a number of scales.
The REA recommends increasing the UK total carbon price to around £50t/CO2 from 2020 with a clear trajectory to at least 2035 in order to promote rapid emission reductions.
The UK should also explore a mechanism which rewards negative emissions, such as tradeable negative emissions allowances under a domestic emissions trading scheme.
Finally, the UK should incentivise the deployment of demonstration projects at several scales that prioritise the use of lowest carbon feedstocks whilst making BECCS plant eligible for support under existing UK policy, such as the Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism.