Packham Urges UK to Cut £24bn Carbon Capture Spending

Campaigners led by Chris Packham are calling on the UK chancellor, the country's finance minister, to cut the government's £24bn spending plan for carbon capture technology in this week's budget.

Carbon capture and storage is a set of technologies that trap carbon dioxide before it leaves industrial sites and store it underground. The UK government has earmarked £24bn to support a series of such projects developed by oil companies including BP and Norwegian state oil company Equinor. The Guardian reported that the planned UK support is more than the combined planned spending of the US, the EU, Norway and Japan.

Packham is asking the Treasury, the government department that prepares the budget, to scale back support for carbon capture. He wants the money redirected to green schemes that cut emissions and lower energy bills. In his criticism, he described carbon capture and storage as a "tech fairytale" that is "exorbitantly expensive" and has "ludicrously uncertain results".

Separately, the government reportedly plans to reduce the grants available to households that replace a gas boiler with an electric heat pump, a device that heats a home using electricity.

The budget, the government's annual statement of tax and spending plans, is due this week.