CEO Statement on a transformative moment for UK CCUS: A new selection model for the East Coast Cluster

While the announcement of a competitive process to identify additional projects eligible for support is a welcome milestone for UK CCUS, the real breakthrough lies in how future selections will be made.

The slow, resource-intensive CCUS ‘Track’ approach appears to be giving way to a more efficient and competitive selection process – widening participation across sectors and project sizes, while prioritising those that can demonstrate strong value and cost-effectiveness.

The shift is pivotal. It has the potential to unlock a wave of projects that require less government support, come from sectors previously unable to deploy carbon capture, and deploy innovative commercial models such as Carbon Capture as a Service. It is a meaningful step toward a self-sustaining CCUS market in the UK.

Other countries are already moving in this direction. Denmark’s CCUS Tender invites bids based on the cost per tonne of grant support required – naturally favouring projects with complementary revenue streams. Sweden operates a similar, streamlined scheme focused on biogenic CO₂.

By concentrating competition on cost and ensuring a transparent, efficient process, these models accelerate deployment and broaden participation.

The East Coast Cluster is the ideal place to launch this new model. It brings together a dense concentration of emitters, with proximity to CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, spare capacity for additional captured emissions and the perfect environment to pilot new commercial approaches.

Carbon Clean is committed to driving down the cost of carbon capture and enabling large-scale deployment, through technological innovation, including our modular CycloneCC technology, and through new business models with emitters and partners. This new competition process presents a major opportunity for the UK to lead from the front and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon industrial economy.