UK energy secretary says carbon capture plan to help 'decarbonize without deindustrializing’

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Britain's energy secretary on Friday defended the government's plans for carbon capture saying it is essential if the country will decarbonize without deindustrializing.

The carbon capture plans are "exciting" because they showed that the new Labour government is “willing to invest in the future of Britain," Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4.

"This is a government willing to invest in the future of Britain to create good jobs of the future, as the good jobs used to exist in coal but this is a new era for Britain and a new set of good jobs bringing us energy security," he noted.

Asked about reactions towards the plan, defining carbon capture as a misstep, and the UK should be getting out of fossil fuel altogether, Miliband said that in order to head towards net zero, “we need all the technologies at our disposal."

The country is heading for "the biggest change in 200 years in the way we run our economy," he added.

Noting that renewables will be the "backbone" of the country's system, the energy secretary said: "You will also have nuclear as part of the energy mix, long duration storage, batteries."

The British government has pledged nearly £22 billion (nearly $29 billion) for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry, and hydrogen production.

By funding two "carbon capture clusters" on northeastern Merseyside and Teesside over the next 25 years, the plan aims to create thousands of jobs, attract private investment, and help the UK meet climate goals.