The Government today announced an innovative scheme to store greenhouse gases in depleted oil and gas wells deep beneath the North Sea.

The proposal, known as "carbon capture and storage" or CCS, was one of several pioneering projects in a £40 million package of ideas outlined today by the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks.

Speaking at the Royal Institution, where he promised that climate change would be an important issue at the upcoming G8 summit, Mr Wicks said: "Reaching our ambitious target of cutting carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 means action now to support emerging technologies that will enable us to burn coal and gas more cleanly.

"At the same time, with major expansion of coal-fired power generation expected in China and India, we want to put the UK at the forefront of what could be a valuable new export opportunity."

Under the scheme, which could be up and running in a decade, carbon dioxide could be pumped through pipelines into depleted oil reservoirs, natural gas fields, deep saline aquifers or unmineable coal seams.

According to the prospectus of the government's £25 million Carbon Abatement Technologies Programme, published today, a further storage option of injecting liquid or sold carbon dioxide "into the ocean deeps" will not be pursued because of "the uncertain environmental impact."

Carbon capture and storage is seen as a viable option for reducing Britain's pollution because it can reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels by up to 85 per cent. The technology used to be capture and store carbon dioxide is already current in power stations in the US, Norway, Canada and Algeria.

It may, however, take 25 years for the plan to make an impact. According to the government's strategy: "Large-scale CCS is probably 10 years off, with real potential as an emission mitigation tool from 2030 in developed countries, followed by roll out in developing countries."

Mark Henderson, science correspondent of The Times, said: "It is a realistic scheme in the long term, but there are still plenty of questions to be answered - mainly about whether the carbon dioxide pumped into disused fields is going to remain stable there, and not just be released later on.

"That's why the scheme is really a pilot -- the £25m is for investigating ways of doing it and eventually to stage a trial. It'll be a decade at least before it's done on anything like a routine basis."

Carbon capture was the most radical of the proposals unveiled today. It appeared alongside more familiar plans to make coal fired power stations more efficient, and to mix biomass with fossil fuels.

A £15 million "Hydrogen Strategy" was also published today, which will create a "Hydrogen Coordination Unit" to unite Britain's disparate strands of research into hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Elliot Morley, the Environment Minister, said: "Tackling climate change is a key priority for the Government, and it is an issue we are addressing on many fronts. Developing carbon abatement technology can help us reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions."

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