The backlash to Labour’s crony Carbon Capture and Storage plans just went up a gear

Fossil Free London, a London-based climate group, have disrupted the Carbon Capture and Storage Association’s annual conference dinner. It’s over the industry’s lies about it climate crisis-combatting credentials – and the Labour Party government’s buying into this.

‘Stop burning oil and gas’

Fossil Free London activists chanted ‘Stop burning oil and gas’, carrying a banner reading ‘Carbon capture is an oil industry lie’ at the dinner at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall:

The Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) is a lobbying firm that represents dozens of fossil fuel companies. These include Equinor, a Norwegian-owned oil giant and majority owner of the controversial Rosebank oil field planned to go ahead in the North Sea, and Drax, the UK’s largest carbon emitter: which are both sponsoring the conference.

The lobbying group attended 20 government carbon capture meetings, more than any other organisation, since January 2020.

Ahead of the Labour government’s recent decision to award £22bn in subsidies to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects, the Canary revealed that the CCSA hob knobbed with the Labour Party at least 16 times in the year prior to the decision.

Carbon Capture and Storage: a Big Oil lie

While Labour claims the investment in CCS signals the start of a ‘green revolution’, scientists and campaigners have penned an open letter to warn that our government’s support of these projects instead helps companies to keep extracting, burning and profiting from fossil fuels.

Relying on unproven and expensive carbon capture technology, paid for by the taxpayer, to justify new privately-owned fossil fuel infrastructure in the UK.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that even if carbon capture and storage was realised at its full announced potential, it would only account for around 2.4 percent of the world’s carbon mitigation by 2030; and 80% of all large-scale CCS projects have failed or ended due to overspending or technical issues.

The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed documents that show that oil and gas corporations know that CCS is unlikely to work, wouldn’t be profitable without securing public subsidies to advance it and understand its value as being to prolong the life of fossil fuels with BP saying that CCS is a way to “enable the full use of fossil fuels across the energy transition and beyond”.

The National Petroleum Council notes that CCS allows for “increased usage of existing US fossil fuel resources, protecting state and federal revenue sources and supporting the license to operate”.

Labour must take leadership, not lobbyist lies

Joanna Warrington, spokesperson for Fossil Free London, commenting on Labour’s recent announcement said:

We all know the oil industry sells lies. First it was that climate change was no big deal, and now it is that corporations like Equinor can keep destroying the foundations of life without consequence if we only invest in CCS.

But carbon capture is at micro scale in comparison to what would be needed, and the tiny role it might have in the transition is totally dwarfed by all the new oil and gas that is justified by pointing at it. The truth is that we need to rapidly scale down oil and gas production.

As Equinor and co. make unbridled spoils from the devastation of the life support systems we all depend on, Labour should be taxing and curtailing the industry, pushing them out of policy so we can get serious about this crisis, not handing them billions and keeping their seats warm around the table.

We need a government that takes climate leadership seriously, and is not distracted by big oil’s fairytales.

Featured image and video via Fossil Free London