UK Energy Minister Martin McCluskey made the case for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) as a core part of Britain's reindustrialisation strategy at the CCSA 2026 conference. The speech ties CCUS to protecting cement, chemicals, refining and low-carbon power, while creating jobs in industrial heartlands. Five Final Investment Decisions have been secured, including the East Coast Cluster and HyNet projects, with over £2 billion in supply chain contracts awarded to more than 260 UK suppliers. The minister highlighted specific projects: Padeswood as the UK's first carbon capture-enabled cement plant, Protos as the first capture-enabled energy-from-waste facility, and ongoing work on the Viking cluster in the Humber and Acorn CCS in Scotland. The central argument is that pipelines and storage sites matter as economic infrastructure, not just emissions reduction. The speech also warns that closing British industry and importing the same products would be deindustrialisation, not decarbonisation. For anyone tracking UK carbon capture policy, this is a useful update on cluster progress, jobs numbers, and the government's framing of CCUS as a route to local economic renewal.
