Project funder

Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)/Bellona Foundation

Project timeframe

December 2019 - April 2022

Overview

Industrial decarbonisation is one of the areas that successful measures need to be implemented in order for the UK to achieve its mid-century net zero targets. To date the research focus has been primarily on the development of cost-effective solutions that will allow the decarbonisation of carbon-intensive industrial processes. However, there has been little research on the economy-wide impacts that may be driven by the additional investment and operational cost requirements introduced by the available technologies. These are crucial considerations if the decarbonisation is to take place at home rather than leading to the off-shoring of industries and the associated losses in jobs and value added.

In this project we focus our attention on how the wider UK economy may be affected by the introduction and operation of a CCS system, as an example of a decarbonisation solution with high embedded capital and operational costs. We use multi-sector economy-wide input output (IO) accounting and computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling to study the impact of the different components of CCS to a number of key policy-relevant variables. The outcomes of our analysis are used to develop political economy narratives, with which we are engaging with policy stakeholders; including civil servants, politicians, NGOs, industry actors, interest groups and the media.

Publications

• Policy trade-offs in delivering and maximising the benefits of CCS : a focus on the economic and labour market challenges
• Could CCUS in the UK constitute a new source of sustained ‘green growth’?
• Moving early in Carbon Capture and Storage : Opportunities and Challenges for Delivering Green Growth and Just Transitions
• Characterisation of Industrial Clusters in the UK and Techno-Economic Cost Assessment for CCTS Implementation
• Policy options for funding carbon capture in regional industrial clusters 
• Steel Manufacturing in Wales: Ensuring a Sustainable and Prosperous Future
• Laying the Foundations for a Net Zero Society : Principles and Infrastructure for a Climate Resilient and Economically Sustainable Recovery
• How is Planned Public Investment to Enable CCS Likely to Impact the Wider UK Economy?
• State Aid or Subsidy Control : Ensuring Prosperity in the Race to Net Zero
• A Net Zero Principles Framework : Fundamental Questions for Public Policy Analysis
• Delivering Prosperity: Industrial Decarbonisation and the Just Transition