Together it is possible! That was the message to government and across the Energy Estuary as the Humber Industrial Cluster Plan and its key asks were unveiled.
The launch of the ‘how’ behind the ‘what’ showcased in the recently-released Humber 2030 Vision, is a detailed two-year piece of work serving up seven mandates for action if the most carbon intensive cluster in the UK is to play its part in helping to avert a climate emergency.
It states the transition from worst offender to global exemplar is “viable, robust, optimised, and can be implemented at speed”, with the urgent need for policy and economic frameworks outlined - with many eyes and ears on next week’s spring budget.
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Carbon capture and storage and hydrogen production are at the core, with pipeline networks for both linking key sites across the region. A capital investment of between £7 billion and £10 billion is anticipated, with almost 23,000 jobs envisaged.
Catch chief executive David Talbot, vice chair of the steering group behind the two-year UK Research and Innovation-funded project, said: “We all need to support our place and our industry on our journey through to 2040 and beyond.
“The necessary supporting regional infrastructure needs to be in place to allow industry to deliver. Our industrial partners are primed and ready to invest. The message is clear. We need to work together as a region, and we need to start now.
“When we decarbonise the Humber we will have the case study to take to the national and world stage to show how we came together, innovated, built, adapted and improved supply chains and trained our people, supported our industry and created an inspirational story on developing a clean, green industrial cluster.”
He described the “huge effort from many individuals and organisations,” that has gone into the full plan, a 450-page document with 88 recommendations and seven studies. Stewardship has been passed to the Humber Energy Board, with ongoing work from many involved.
Stephen Parnaby OBE, deputy chair Hull & East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership - an organisation helping steer that board to act as a unifying voice on critical Humber-wide projects - said: “The Humber is turning the tide in favour of clean growth and that is massively important. We have the chance to reduce industrial emissions more than any other region in the UK. The geography gives us access to large scale CO2 and hydrogen storage, and the Humber Industrial Cluster Plan is the key that will make all these things happen. Completed within 24 months it is a detailed analysis that confirms the ambition of the decarbonisation project.
"Above all else it underlines our position as leaders of the UK industrial decarbonisation challenge. This is where it will happen, this will be the leader in the UK and beyond.”
Invited guests gathered at Docks Academy in Grimsby for the launch, and heard how the Humber alone could hit 133 per cent of the national target for CCS, using depleted oil and gas fields beneath the near North Sea.
HICP’s mandates are:
- To implement carbon capture and storage and greenhouse gas removal technologies at pace and scale
- To implement low carbon hydrogen and scale
- To adopt all optimal electrification measures
- To prioritise efficiency and circular economy measures
- To generate social value through the industrial transition
- To further develop Humber skills and supply chains
- To drive investment and collaboration to deliver the Net Zero Humber of tomorrow
Jonathan Briggs, Humber Zero project director, gave industry perspective, as he heads up the joint venture between Phillips 66 and his employer, VPI, the refining cluster’s power base.
He said: “There is a lot of pent up investment ready and waiting to be deployed. This is where it really needs to happen at scale. This is the right time to move with carbon capture and storage, to build an industry and not export overseas. I have great hope that this is a great time to be involved.”
Representing UK research and Innovation, Dr William Joyce, innovation lead on industrial decarbonisation told how the “Humber is at the heart of plans to deliver” on the government-backed £210 million Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge Fund, with more than £34 million already invested in the region on early-stage work “The tremendous work of the cluster plan will have a major impact for Humber cluster decarbonisation,” he said. “There is a real chance the Humber industrial cluster will become the world’s first net zero industrial cluster. We will see what happens in the coming years.”
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