National Grid has backed the Government’s bid to reignite the carbon capture industry with a call to fast-track funding for new projects to as soon as next year.

Ministers have already pledged £100m to research technology which can help strip carbon dioxide out of industrial emissions, but the FTSE 100 energy system operator said funding for specific projects should emerge in 2019.

The Government is currently developing new plans to help fund carbon capture projects in the same way it has helped support the roll out of renewable power projects, but it is not expected to reveal the new investment mechanism until next year.

National Grid made its call for fast-tracked carbon capture funding in a new report which found that “action is needed now” to develop the low-carbon gas sources which are needed to keep to climate change targets.

The group has called for pilot projects to be identified in order to begin undertaking full studies by the early 2020s and be operational by the mid-2020s.