It is now widely accepted that our planet is undergoing climate change, with man-made gases produced from fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil, being one of the major causes of global warming.

Many countries such as China and India do not have access to large gas reserves so coal-fired generation is the only viable source for much of the power needed to support their populations. It is with this in mind that we believe the UK must take a position of leadership in the development of low carbon technologies.

One of the ways that we have of doing this is to fit carbon capture and storage technologies to new and existing power stations – particularly to coal-fired units. By doing that, we hope, in the future, to be able to capture 90% of carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere and to store it underground.

The technologies to do this have been tested on a number of small scale projects across the world. The next step is to take the technology forward and demonstrate carbon capture, transportation and storage on a large scale. When we get there, we’ll have a real chance of being able to cater for the global population’s energy needs at the same time as protecting our planet from damaging carbon emissions.