Over 600 people from 27 countries registered to watch a fascinating webinar hosted by the Zero Carbon Humber Partnership on Thursday 19th November, indicating the massive level of global interest for the transformative decarbonisation project.
The partnership, which has submitted a public & private funded bid worth £75m to Government to make the Humber the world’s first net zero carbon industrial cluster, joined forces with national energy and environmental trade magazine Business Green to deliver this one-off free to attend event where stakeholders from across the world could be walked through the project and ask questions of its senior project managers.
Businesses, government officials and trade bodies from as far away as Japan, Malaysia, Brazil, Qatar, USA and Canada joined European stakeholders from the likes of Norway, Germany, France and Netherlands to hear the Humber’s plans. Nearly one hundred questions were submitted by the audience throughout the session.
The event featured an introduction by a senior official from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which is responsible for initiating the industrial decarbonisation ‘challenge’ that regions like the Humber are seeking to meet. National civil servants and officials from local government and devolved assemblies across the UK also dialled in.
The webinar provided an overview of the project and enabled the partners to present their specific projects as part of the wider scheme. Among these were Equinor’s plans to develop a hydrogen plant with carbon capture at Saltend Chemicals Park (‘H2H Saltend’); Uniper’s hydrogen hub at Killingholme; British Steel’s decarbonisation ambitions at their Scunthorpe steelworks; SSE Thermal’s ‘Clean Power Hub’ at Keadby; and negative emissions from bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Drax Power Station near Selby.
The event was particularly pertinent given Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of his ‘Ten Point Plan’ for a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ the previous day, which set out his support for carbon capture, hydrogen and job creation through industrial decarbonisation in regions like the Humber.
James Murray, editor of Business Green, who chaired the event, said:
"I was absolutely delighted to chair such a fascinating, informative and professional session on this vital topic of decarbonising industrial clusters such as the Humber. It’s one of the best events I’ve hosted this year and there was clearly huge interest from across the UK and further afield which shows the potential for these projects on the world stage. It was also great to see such impressive audience engagement, which is testament to the strength of the project and the presentations."
Dan Sadler, Equinor’s UK Low Carbon Strategy Director, who has led the Zero Carbon Humber £75m bid, said:
"Zero Carbon Humber is a unique offering of low carbon infrastructure, carbon capture and hydrogen, which can put the Humber and the North of England on the world stage in terms of industrial decarbonisation. The global reach and deep level of interest that this project attracts was evident during the event and demonstrates what we can achieve from this game-changing project."
A recording of the webinar and the presentation slides are available below.