Energy companies have ignited multibillion-pound plans in the Humber region for the UK’s first carbon-neutral “industrial cluster”.
An alliance of companies, including National Grid, Drax and Norway’s state energy company Equinor, are leading a project designed to shrink the carbon footprint of Britain’s most polluting industrial zone.
The cluster includes hundreds of refineries, factories plus the Drax coal-fired power plant near the Humber estuary, ostensibly safeguarding 55,000 jobs and a local industrial economy worth £18 billion a year.
It should be remembered that this area is also responsible for the highest concentration of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in the country, so daily undermining the UK’s goal to become a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.
The alliance plans to undertake (yet another) trial of CCS technology and hopes to break down natural gas to, “create hydrogen, which can be used in industry, heating and transport without creating greenhouse gases.” Good luck with that.
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