• Mhairidh Evans of Wood Mackenzie said, per Energy Voice (6 November 2026), that the UK CCS system is "perhaps under threat" because it is subject to political cycles and Treasury budgets.
• Evans said £21.7 billion has been allocated under Track-1, and that HyNet and the Northern Endurance Partnership have both reached final investment decisions.
• The UK government's June 2025 Spending Review release backed carbon capture with £9.4 billion and gave Acorn and Viking development funding; it set their financial close as "later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability".
• Evans also said about a third of roughly 75 capture projects worldwide have no identified CO2 destination, so storage and transport remain a bottleneck.
• This is analysis, not investment advice.

UK carbon capture has a funded first tranche and a second one that depends on future budgets. Energy Voice reported on 6 November 2026 that a panel at the EAGE Global Energy Transition conference in Hannover discussed fears over plans to invest in the sector in "the recent Budget". The article does not name that Budget or give its date, and it reports no UK government CCS funding figure from it. This piece is analysis, not investment advice.

What the panel actually said

The sharpest warning came from Mhairidh Evans, vice president of carbon management at Wood Mackenzie. Energy Voice quotes her saying the UK system is "perhaps under threat" because it is "subject to political cycles and to treasury budgets". The article also reports that most panellists agreed the world needs to develop CCS. This is one executive's assessment at a conference, not a financing finding, and it should be weighed that way.

Track-1: the capacity that reached a decision

Track-1 is where announced capacity has become financed capacity. Energy Voice quotes Evans saying £21.7 billion has been allocated to major projects in the North of England and that the process was "very effective" at moving projects toward execution. She said HyNet and the Northern Endurance Partnership have both reached final investment decisions. The June 2025 gov.uk release likewise says two projects, in Liverpool Bay and Teesside, reached financial close that year.

Track-2: development money, not yet a financial close

Acorn and Viking sit one step earlier. The UK Government's 12 June 2025 release, issued by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said carbon capture was backed with £9.4 billion following the Spending Review, to be invested this parliament, and that Acorn and Viking received development funding. It said both are to reach financial close "later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability". Energy Voice adds that the UK shifted the focus of earlier Acorn funding pledges away from grant funding, without further detail.

Why the cycle is the binding constraint

The gov.uk wording is conditional: financial close is tied to readiness and affordability, and affordability is set in budgets that change between spending rounds. That is consistent with Evans's point about Treasury budgets, though neither source shows a decision has been reversed. Evans also said about a third of roughly 75 capture projects worldwide have no identified CO2 destination. Funded capture without storage and transport remains undelivered capacity.

What to watch next

Three signals matter. The first is whether Acorn and Viking reach financial close within this parliament, as the June 2025 release states. The second is whether the Budget Energy Voice refers to changes the capital available to them; its date and CCS content should be confirmed against the primary Budget documents. The third is whether the North Sea ban on CO2 transport between the UK and Europe, which Evans called an "invisible barrier", is lifted. Until then, UK CCS is a financed first tranche with an unresolved second.