Moscow (Platts)--12Oct2009/533 am EDT/933 GMT

The UK government needs to "take immediate steps" if it is to "dramatically shrink" the UK's emissions of greenhouse gases in line with targets recommended by the independent Committee on Climate Change, according to reports published Monday by Finnish consultancy Poyry.

It has done two studies into the viability of low carbon technology on behalf of the CCC ahead of its first progress report, published in parliament Monday. The first looked at the challenges of delivering increased levels of wind power throughout the UK while the second study focused on the steps to establish the commercial viability of carbon capture and storage.

Poyry found that while there are significant obstacles to achieving the widespread use of the technologies, both could cut the UK's carbon output. But the authors warn this will only be possible with concerted and sustained support from government.

Wind power and CCS are at very different stages of development but coherent and sustained policy support could enable these industries to flourish, Poyry said.

The CCC was created under the 2008 Climate Change Act to provide independent advice to the government on setting carbon budgets, and to monitor the progress made by government towards meeting these.

The CCC's 2009 report to parliament assesses progress made by government in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and sets out areas where policy needs to be strengthened in order to meet carbon budgets and achieve a 34% cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. The report recommends that emissions from the power sector be reduced by 50% by 2020, driven by investment in wind, nuclear and CCS.

Poyry says that without effective action to remove barriers to increased deployment of commercial wind farms, the production of renewable electricity could be 13% less than needed to hit renewable energy targets by 2020.

CCS has "great potential to offer a low carbon alternative to nuclear" but attracting the necessary level of support for and investment in CCS is a "major challenge," Poyry says.

It recommends that the government undertake a two-phase demonstration program to establish the commercial viability of CCS rather than the single phase that has been suggested.

The first would demonstrate that CCS projects can technically operate at scale while the second would build on the operational experience gained in the initial demonstration and resolve technical issues and problems identified in the first phase.

Poyry also strongly suggests that government should consider additional support during the critical pre-commercial stage and suggests this requirement is assessed in 2013, with details proposed by 2015.

--William Powell, william_powell@platts.com