The Importance of Early Employment and Government Revenue Gains in Governing the Wider Economy Costs and Benefits of Deploying UK CCUS

The opportunities to transition existing oil and gas industry activity and supply chain jobs to the operation of a new CO₂ Transport and Storage (T&S) industry as a core part of UK Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), have already been made clear in a number of government publications. However, persisting worker and skills shortages in the UK labour market will constrain the extent of jobs supported and sustained GDP and associated revenue gains realised in practice, and also bring challenges in terms of cost-effective CCUS project delivery in the crowded investment space between now and 2030.  This policy brief provides new insights and analysis on how actions to address the existing labour market shortages could affect the potential employment, government revenue and other macroeconomic impacts of deploying a new CO₂ UK T&S industry.