UK CCS body picks new CEO
A UK carbon capture and storage group said July 20 it had selected Ruth Herbert, a climate leader with government experience, as its next CEO.
Herbert, currently the director of strategy and development at the state-owned Low Carbon Contracts Company, takes the helm at the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) in October. That group is the trade body for the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) industry in the UK.
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“I look forward to working with the CCSA team and its members to build this critical industry and bring forward a successful CCUS programme to achieve UK climate goals,” she said.
The UK government has plans to capture 10mn metric tons/year of CO2 by 2030. To do that, the trade group estimated in an early-July report that funding for CCUS in the range of around £1.2bn (US$1.6bn) is required.
Herbert served previously in various government capacities, working at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The state-owned entity where she works now managed some of the government’s low-carbon initiatives.
Luke Warren, the current CEO, announced in April he was stepping aside to take a new position elsewhere in the sector.
As with most major economies, the UK is working to accelerate the energy transition. But Oxford economic researcher Dieter Helm has warned that the government is failing to present the electorate with a true picture of the associated costs.
He also said the government had no coherent plan to realise a net-zero carbon economy, instead merely adopting a collection of strategies and announcements. Even some of those, he said, were postponed due to the expected difficulties.