The British government has allocated up to £21.7 billion for the implementation of two mega-projects for CO2 capture and storage. The most advanced of these is HyNet North West, which will therefore benefit from substantial subsidies for the construction of the infrastructure/pipeline that will collect carbon dioxide captured from around twenty industrial sites in Liverpool Bay. Once captured and processed for transport, the CO2 will arrive at the Point of Ayr terminal on the north coast of Wales, before being transported under the sea to the almost depleted gas fields operated by Eni, which will be filled with the climate-killing gas. New CO2 pipes will be laid over 35 kilometres, while another 149 kilometres of existing pipelines will be retrofitted. Eni’s goal is to store 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in the first phase of the project, eventually reaching up to 10 million tonnes at full capacity.
However, doubts remain about the effectiveness of this type of project, both in terms of safety and efficiency. In 2023, a carbon pipeline exploded in Satartia, Mississippi, injuring dozens of people, and over the last 15 years, 76 CO2 leaks have been documented in the US. A study by Imperial College London, published in early September on the Nature magazine website, highlights how the risk of earthquakes, technical problems or territorial disputes makes it possible to safely store only 1,500 gigatonnes of CO2 on a global scale, a figure well below the 40,000 gigatonnes previously estimated. A report by ReCommon and Greenpeace Italy found that, since 2009, governments around the world have allocated £8.5 billion to CCS projects, but only 30% of this funding has been spent. This is because some projects have failed to get off the ground, while many others are behind schedule or have produced such disappointing results that they have already been abandoned due to economic unsustainability or technical problems.
