The petition of residents of the United Kingdom,
Declares that the UK Government needs to significantly strengthen its manifesto and policies with respect to the climate and nature crisis, as called for by 2000 business professionals and leaders; further that there needs to be a rapid scale up in investment, and support essential training for the transition; further that there needs to be a more robust plan to restore nature and halt further decline by 2030 which would involve a National Plan for achieving nature targets and robust regulatory frameworks enabling our rivers, seas, food and farming to thrive; and further that there needs to be an end to new fossil fuel developments in the UK including new licensing rounds and approvals for oil and gas exploration, in line with calls from the UN Secretary-General, climate scientists and the IEA.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to take into account the concerns of the petitions and take immediate action to ensure that these three areas are underpinned with robust policies and regulation.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by the right hon. Member for Kingswood, Chris Skidmore, Official Report, 8 November 2023; Vol. 741, c. 806.]
[P002877]
Observations from the Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero (Graham Stuart):
We are proud of the UK’s leadership in tackling climate change. The UK is the first major economy to halve its emissions, and we continue to have one of the most ambitious 2030 targets of any major economy. Our significant investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy sector has increased our renewable electricity capacity sixfold since 2010, bolstering our energy security.
Since 2010, the UK has seen nearly £200 billion of public and private investment in low-carbon energy sectors, using innovative approaches such as the contracts for difference scheme, which is now copied around the world. Our policies are backed by billions of pounds of Government funding and will leverage around £100 billion of private investment and support up to 480,000 jobs in 2030. The Government have also committed £960 million to a green industries growth accelerator, to support clean energy manufacturing.
The Government’s net zero and environmental goals depend on the UK having the right workforce, with the right skills and capacity in the right locations across the UK. To tackle emerging and future workforce demands across the economy, the Government convened the green jobs delivery group and are focused on the creation of a cross-Government green jobs plan, for publication in the first half of 2024. The green jobs plan will provide the Government and industry actions needed to ensure that we have a sufficiently skilled workforce to deliver on the Government’s net zero, nature and energy security targets.
This Government are committed to leaving the environment in a better state than we found it. In 2018 we published our 25-year environment plan, which sets out our long-term approach to protecting and improving our natural environment. The Environment Act 2021 includes a legally binding target to halt the decline in nature by 2030. This, and other targets, will tackle some of the biggest pressures facing our environment. They will ensure progress on clean air; clean and plentiful water; less waste and more sustainable use of our resources; a step change in tree planting; a better marine environment; and a more diverse, resilient and healthy natural environment.
Meeting these ambitious targets is a national endeavour, requiring all of us to play our part. Recent actions to meet our species abundance target include the launch of our multimillion-pound species survival fund in June, and the announcement in November of the 34 projects selected for the second round of our landscape recovery scheme. Our agricultural transition plan sets out increased incentives for farmers to deliver positive environmental outcomes, and by 2028 we will see at least 70% of farmers and land managers undertaking environmental land management actions alongside food production, crucial to helping achieve our challenging targets.
New oil and gas licences will slow the decline in UK production, rather than see it increase above current levels. New projects, such as Rosebank, are expected to have lower production emissions than the current North sea average. The alternative to new licences will see increased imports of LNG with four times higher emissions than domestic production.
Even with continued exploration and development, oil and gas production is expected to decline by 7% a year, faster than the rate required to keep warming below 1.5°C. New licensing is also crucial to support the transition to net zero—the skills, jobs and supply chains in the oil and gas sector are the same ones that we will need for renewables. If we pull the rug from under the sector, the transition will be more difficult.
Ending new licences in the North sea would make no difference to our consumption of fossil fuels but would lead to more higher emission imports, threaten 200,000 jobs, risk billions in tax receipts and undermine the energy transition. It makes no sense. That is why we have introduced the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill.
As the Prime Minister has made clear, this Government remain committed to delivering net zero by 2050, and our 2030 and 2037 targets. Our biggest challenge is persuading other countries to join the UK on a net zero pathway, and we will continue to build on the positive results of both COP26 and COP28 in doing exactly that.