The UK Government has accepted the Committee on Climate Change’s advice on delivering a net zero carbon economy by 2050. Is the UK’s industrial infrastructure adequately equipped to deliver a fair, just and prosperous transition within this timeframe?

Bellona Europa is partnering with the Center for Energy Policy of the University of Strathclyde and CIFF for a joint 2 year project aiming at developing a deeper understanding of UK ‘s socio-economic value of the industrial transformation enabled by CCS.

The UK has five main high-value industry clusters, that may evolve and continue to grow differently by in repurposing offshore and oil/gas supply chain capacity to deliver CO₂ transport and storage, which may be required to capture CO₂. The research will look into ways of ensuring competitiveness in these clusters and their potential to still contribute to the UK economy.

“Bellona is delighted to be working with the world-leading economists and researchers at the University of Strathclyde to help advance industrial decarbonisation in the UK and beyond,” said Theo Mitchell, Head of UK. Differently from previous researches on industrial decarbonisation – that mainly focused on technological solutions – , the 2 years project will investigate into the economic, policy and societal aspects of what industrial decarbonisation could look like in the United Kingdom.

The Center for Energy Policy will be leading the academic research part of the project which will involve developing simulation methods to model actions to reduce industry emissions, and economy-wide scenario simulation frameworks to report potential outcomes across the wider economy. The Center for Energy Policy has already released its first paper “Delivering Prosperity : Industrial Decarbonisation and the Just Transition” available now online.

UK’s regional industry clusters,  are key hubs of local economic activity and an important part of the UK economy and job market. “Giving industry access to net-zero technologies through infrastructures for CO2 and hydrogen can protect and create jobs, and generate new investments and value creation in Britain,” said Jan-Justus Andreas, Industry Policy Manager at Bellona Europa.
The Bellona Foundation will focus on engaging and collaborating with the UK policy and political communities with the aim of achieving early impact through the forthcoming Net Zero Review by HM Treasury. Translating what climate science tells us and what engineers can do into effective policy actions and recomendation will be a key part of the organisation.  “We believe that this work can help legislators and policy makers to make the most-effective decisions,  accelerate the transition to net zero emissions and ensure that policy puts society and the just transition at the heart of UK industrial policy,” added Theo Mitchell.