Rochdale MEP wins €10billion vote to fight climate change

Rochdale's Euro-MP has described it as the best day of his political life after proposals for a €10 billion EU fund to support the development of carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) to slow global warming have gained European Parliament backing.

Now Chris Davies MEP starts a hectic month of meetings with ministers across Europe to try and win a majority in favour of the plan.

He has already been promised strong support from the British and Dutch Governments, who believe that the measures can help kickstart application of the new technology.

Use of a European funding mechanism for the work could also save the HM Treasury more than £1 billion.

Scientists claim that the use of CCS could halve total CO2 emissions from power stations and major industrial installations by 2050.

The technology requires the separation of CO2 from the fossil fuel for permanent underground storage in depleted oil and gas fields or deep saline aquifers.

EU Heads of Government promised in March last year to ensure construction of up to 12 commercial demonstration projects by 2015 but no source of funding has yet been identified.

Power plant manufacturers believe that CCS will be commercially viable within 15-20 years but say that support will be needed to promote the technology during the development stage when it could double the cost of conventional power stations.

The plan introduced by Chris Davies, the European Parliament's negotiator for CCS, calls for the use up to 500 million allowances from the emissions trading scheme to meet the additional costs of the installations.

The value of the support mechanism will depend on the price of CO2 when the gas is eventually buried underground but could easily exceed €10 billion.

The MEP will now start direct negotiations with the EU's French Presidency with a view to securing a deal between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers before the end of the year.

Mr Davies said the European Parliament had laid down a challenge: "EU governments must now either back this proposal to kickstart CCS development or produce a realistic alternative. At present the ideas from the Parliament are the only show in town.

"CCS development has the potential to make an enormous contribution to the fight against climate change. We can afford no delay and no more construction of conventional coal-fired power stations. It is time now for Ministers to back their fine words of last year with some practical action."