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Former Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East has joined a carbon capture developer as chair, saying he wants to devote much of the rest of his career to tackling climate change.
The 62-year-old is taking up the role at C-Capture, which has been spun out of the University of Leeds and is backed by companies including UK power generation business Drax and oil major BP.
It marks his second new role since leaving the aero-engine maker at the end of 2022, having joined the board of fusion energy start-up Tokamak Energy in May.
East said he wanted a “significant portion” of his work post Rolls-Royce to be “around energy transition and dealing with the effects of climate change”.
He added: “When I joined Rolls-Royce we had a business where 96 per cent of the revenue depended on setting fire to fossil fuels.
“My understanding of that was that in 2050 my grandchildren are not going to be getting on aeroplanes unless we make sure they can do so without trashing the planet or trashing the environment.”
C-Capture is developing technology that uses a solvent to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power stations or industrial processes in order to prevent them from being released into the atmosphere.
Under its process, gases emitted by the industrial plant are funnelled into the solvent which latches on to the carbon dioxide, separating it so it can then be stored or used for industrial purposes.
The company, led by chief executive Tom White, a chemical process engineer whose career includes developing oil and gas projects in the Middle East, said its technology requires less energy than rivals to run and is kinder to the environment as its solvent is biodegradable.
It is currently running a pilot project at Drax’s power plant in North Yorkshire, capable of capturing one tonne of carbon dioxide per day, ahead of designing its first commercial-scale demonstration unit.
East, who was chief executive of chipmaker Arm Holdings between 2001 and 2013, said he was “convinced that there is a technology road map here”, adding C-Capture could be a “global leader in the field”.
The International Energy Agency and other experts say carbon capture technology, still to operate successfully anywhere at scale, will be needed for countries to meet their targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions but caution against relying on it.
IEA head Fatih Birol has said that “continuing with business-as-usual for oil and gas while hoping a vast deployment of carbon capture will cut the emissions is fantasy.”
Birol said it would mean an “implausibly large amount of carbon capture”, requiring a leap in annual investment from $4 billion last year to $3.5 trillion, in its world outlook released last year.
East said he had “thought very seriously” about the debate around the technology.
But he argued that there were sectors, such as cement-making, where emissions are inherent to the process, while in other sectors there was “tonnes of capital tied up in existing plants, which the world cannot afford to leave as stranded assets”.
He added: “We need to find a way of utilising those assets through their natural life without destroying the planet.”
East’s decision to join C-Capture comes as Rolls-Royce’s shares climbed 224 per cent during 2023, marking their best annual performance since the company’s privatisation in 1987.
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