Acorn carbon capture support ‘props up an industry ripping us off’

Climate campaigners have said that the Chancellor’s pledge of support for the Acorn carbon capture greenwashing scheme is “propping up an industry that is ripping off” the public.

Key partners in the Acorn Project who would benefit from any public money include Shell & Harbour Energy. Shell have made £90 billion profits in recent years and rolled back on renewable energy commitments. Harbour are the UK’s largest oil and gas producer who recently laid off 250 staff despite paying out almost £1 billion to shareholders in the last 3 years. Both are aiming to expand their oil and gas drilling.

A Public Accounts Committee investigation into carbon capture in February 2024 describes the UK Government’s existing £22billion handout to carbon capture as a “high risk gamble” with three-quarters of subsidy coming from “levies on consumers who are already facing some of the highest energy bills in the world.”

Climate campaigners are pointing to “50 years of failure” for the carbon capture technology and calling instead for investment in public transport, energy efficiency and measures to support oil workers to transition into renewable energy jobs.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s climate campaigner Alex Lee (they/them) said

“The Acorn project is a fossil fuel polluters pipe dream and will never live up to the hype.”

“It is disgraceful that the Chancellor is propping up a fossil fuel industry that is ripping us off. Carbon capture lobbyists have convinced politicians to back this greenwashing scam and ignore the 50 years of failure by this technology.

“Carbon capture has received billions in funding around the world and it has never worked properly. Politicians should be backing climate solutions that can improve people’s lives such as upgrading public transport, ensuring people live in warm homes and creating green jobs for the long term.

“Fossil fuel companies are laying off workers on one hand and willfully misleading them about potential jobs in CCS on the other. It is scandalous for industry lobbyists to pretend that CCS protects anything other than their profits, when workers need robust, secure transition plans.

“The main beneficiaries of any subsidy for Acorn will be wealthy oil giants like Shell and Harbour Energy who have demonstrate their lack of interest in a fair energy transition by ditching their climate commitments and sacking workers.

“If an industry is reliant on carbon capture for its future, then it is relying on a technology which has over-promised and under-delivered for decades.

ENDS