By Nina Chestney
LONDON (Reuters) - The British government on Wednesday announced two competitions that will award a total of about £140 million to industrial decarbonisation projects as part of efforts to help the UK achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The competitions aim to help support projects to decarbonise industry, such as carbon capture and hydrogen power, and boost plans to establish the world's first net zero industrial cluster, or group of similar and related firms in a specific geographic area, by 2040.
The UK in June passed laws requiring greenhouse gas emissions, about a quarter of which are produced by industry, to be cut to net zero by 2050 as part of attempts to tackle climate change.
In the first competition, businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million to develop plans for decarbonising an industrial cluster.
Successful applicants will then compete in a second phase where up to £131 million will be awarded for projects which deliver or support significant emissions reductions in an industrial cluster by 2030.
In the second competition, UK organisations can apply for a share of up to £1 million to prepare plans for achieving low-carbon and net zero industrial clusters.
Then, up to £8 million will be awarded for the development of decarbonisation plans or roadmaps for major UK industrial clusters.
Both competitions close on Dec. 4.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Susan Fenton)
