Carbon Herald reports the announcement by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves of a £59.6 million (~$80 million) funding package to launch the Peak Cluster carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to be developed in the country’s industrial heartland.

The UK government has identified Peak Cluster as the world’s largest consolidated cement decarbonisation development. The aim is to establish a permanent transport pipeline to capture process emissions from legacy cement and lime manufacturing facilities across Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the North West, and deliver them directly to depleted gas reservoirs off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, for permanent underground sequestration beneath the Irish Sea.

Public capital will contribute £28.6 million of the funding. The remainder will be covered by a private-sector consortium of heavy building material majors, Holcim, Tarmac, Breedon, and SigmaRoc, alongside midstream developers Summit Energy Evolution and Progressive Energy.

Once fully operational, the Peak Cluster network is expected to intercept and safely bury more than three million tonnes of CO₂ annually.