Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government further to the publication of Zero Hour’s Nature and Climate Declaration on 1 November, what steps are they taking (1) to reduce the full scope of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions reductions in line with limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, (2) to halt and reverse biodiversity decline by 2030, and (3) to deliver a more ambitious and integrated environmental protection and decarbonisation plan.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to delivering net zero emissions by 2050. This is consistent with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts towards 1.5°C.
The Environment Act 2021 commits the Government to halting the decline in species in England by 2030, in addition to setting at least one long term target for biodiversity. The Environment Act’s package of new policies, alongside other measures including the Nature for Climate Fund and new Environmental Land Management schemes, will help the Government to reach its targets and tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much consumers were paid back from renewable energy schemes signed up to the Contracts for Difference schemes in the two quarters since April this year.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Renewable generators signed up to the Contracts for Difference scheme make payments to energy suppliers, rather than directly to consumers.
The total CfD payments made to suppliers relating to the last two quarters was:
£258,813,576.63.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what knowledge they had, if any, of renewable energy company Drax purchasing licences to cut down trees from primary forests in Canada to make wood pellets for its power station in Yorkshire, as alleged in the BBC's Panorama investigation, which aired on 3 October.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The regulator Ofgem is responsible for auditing the sustainability of biomass used by biomass electricity generators which receive support under the Renewables Obligation and has a process in place for this. As is routine, Ofgem is establishing whether the biomass sustainability criteria have been met by the generator. These criteria ensure that only sustainable biomass is used to produce renewable electricity. Sustainability information is publicly available on Ofgem’s website.
To receive support generators must follow sustainable management practices that require the maintenance and replanting of the forest, demonstration that deforestation is not occurring where they source material from, and that biodiversity, soil and water are protected, among other requirements.