Part 2: Carbon dioxide capture, storage etc and hydrogen production, transport and storage Chapter 6: General Section 129: Financial assistance
Section 129 makes provision for the Secretary of State to incur expenditure and provide financial assistance for the purpose of encouraging, supporting or facilitating:
The transportation of carbon dioxide,
The storage of carbon dioxide,
Carbon dioxide capture facilities, which operate (or are to operate) in association with facilities for either or both of transport and storage of carbon dioxide,
Low carbon hydrogen production,
The transportation of hydrogen, and
The storage of hydrogen.
	The main purpose of this power is to enable the Government to incur such costs or liabilities and provide such financial assistance as the Secretary of State considers necessary and proportionate to incentivise investment in, and facilitate the delivery of carbon capture, transportation and storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and low carbon hydrogen production. Financial assistance in relation to carbon capture and storage may include, for example, support for industrial carbon capture, waste carbon capture, bioenergy with carbon capture or direct air capture.
	The scope of the financial assistance power in this Part of the Act allows for financial support to be provided for a range of CCUS activities, should such support be considered appropriate. This compares to the narrower scope of the economic regulation and licensing framework in Part 1 of the Act, which is concerned, initially, with the licensing of pipeline transportation of carbon dioxide for geological storage, given the natural monopoly characteristics of these transport and storage assets.
	Subsection (2) and (3) contain specific examples of where the Secretary of State may incur expenditure. Financial assistance may be provided by way of grants, loans, guarantees or indemnities or by the provision of insurance, or in any other form, and may be provided subject to conditions or provided under a contract.
	For the purpose of this section, subsection (6) makes provision about the interpretation of certain terms.