Tropical Forest Forever Facility

Earl of Kinnoull Excerpts

Tuesday 9th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I very much welcome the noble Baroness to her new position on the Front Bench opposite, and I hope we will have constructive discussions in the future. She underlines the question of the different priorities that are ahead of us at the moment in terms of where to put money at particular junctures. I must admit that I am not a habitual reader of the Times, so the noble Baroness is one step ahead of me there, but I will have a good look at that letter. What she says underlines that at the moment this country has a huge number of sometimes not always well-anticipated demands on our funding—nuclear is one of them, and obviously defence is another—and that clearly has an effect on where you put money at particular points, however much your heart tells you that you would like to do so.

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned earlier the tree planting that has been going on in the United Kingdom. Is he aware that the biggest threat to those trees reaching maturity and helping with the net-zero calculation is the grey squirrel? Can he give signs of the Government’s determination to deal with the grey squirrel problem and the main research in fertility control going on at the government laboratories at the Animal and Plant Health Agency?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I am not sure I can give the noble Earl the assurance that the Government will go out and shoot large numbers of grey squirrels in the near future. I accept that squirrels, deer and other similar animals are probably the biggest threat to what we plant as a woodland plantation and whether it actually gets to maturity in 50 years so that it can make its impact on reafforestation and carbon emissions reduction. That is one reason why the UK is concentrating its woodland afforestation and forest development efforts on managed plantation woodlands, so that the best protection is available within those woodlands from the sort of predation that the noble Earl mentions as a barrier to the development of mature woodlands and forests.

Wales: Nuclear Power Generation

Earl of Kinnoull Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

I do not think we know the causes of what happened yet, so it is a bit early for noble Lords to start speculating on what direct relationship it has with this country. But I agree with what my noble friend says, that we want diverse electricity sources. That is what clean power is going to give us. We are going to have a number of renewable energy sources, we have nuclear as our baseload, we have gas, hopefully with carbon capture, with the ability to switch it on and off, and we will have clean, homegrown power. That is the way to energy security.

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

My Lords, the Inter-Ministerial Group for Net Zero, Energy and Climate Change met in March and issued a communiqué. The four Governments of the UK were represented there, the UK Government being represented by the Minister for Energy. In the section entitled “What was discussed”, four items are named, but nuclear energy is not one of them. However, it says that they talked about what would be mentioned at future meetings. This seems an ideal opportunity to discuss something which is at the core of net zero. Is the Minister able to comment on that and give an undertaking that, at future meetings of this important interministerial group, this will be on the agenda?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, that is a very good point indeed. Of course, one has to face up to the fact that the Scottish Government are not in favour of new nuclear development, despite the rich heritage there, and despite how much of Scotland’s electricity at the moment comes from nuclear development. But certainly, the noble Earl is absolutely right to say that, in these kinds of discussions, the role of nuclear is very important, not just for what it provides but for the growth it can bring to our economy, very highly skilled jobs and a lot of infrastructure investment as well. So the case for nuclear is very strong indeed.

Scotland: New Nuclear Power Generation

Earl of Kinnoull Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend knows that on powers relating to nuclear the issue is that, in Scotland, nationally significant infrastructure projects, including nuclear, are broadly reserved. However, Scottish Ministers have devolved executive competence for planning decisions for improving applications to build, operate or modify electricity-generating stations with capacities exceeding 50 megawatts in Scotland. We are not in a position to make a change to that. Scotland has a rich nuclear heritage, and the work being done at Torness is extremely valuable in providing clean energy to Scotland. As I have said already, we very much support EDF’s decision to extend the life of Torness by a couple of years.

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

The Net Zero, Energy and Climate Change Interministerial Group met on 6 March and the communiqué came out yesterday. It has a section in it about what was discussed, and nuclear power is not mentioned. The interministerial group met in October and March last year, and nuclear power is not mentioned in either of those two communiqués. Can the Minister assure us that nuclear power will be on the agenda of the next meeting of the interministerial group?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, we are always open to discussing nuclear power in that group, and with the Scottish Government. However, it is very difficult to make progress in view of the current Scottish Government’s position on nuclear. I can say that, on 6 February in the Scottish Parliament, Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, called on John Swinney, the First Minister, to drop his ideological opposition to nuclear power in Scotland.