UK government gambles on carbon capture and storage tech despite scientists’ doubts

While Grant Shapps, energy and net zero secretary, is ‘very keen’ to fill caverns under the north sea with captured carbon, Mark Maslin, professor of earth science at UCL, says he is ‘unaware of any CCS that works’. Photograph: David Jones/PA

The UK government will defy scientific doubts to place a massive bet on technology to capture and store carbon dioxide in undersea caverns, to enable an expansion of oil and gas in the North Sea.

Grant Shapps, the energy and net zero secretary, will on Thursday unveil the “powering up Britain” strategy, with carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its heart, during a visit to a nuclear fusion development facility in Oxford.