Revised Draft Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1)

Lord Bishop of Liverpool Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2011 Grand Committee

[The Lord Bishop of Liverpool]

My Lords, I, too, am pleased to contribute to this debate on the revised statements. I recognise how much the Minister has taken on board points from the previous debates. I also recognise the huge importance of ensuring a continued sufficient and secure power supply to UK homes and businesses over the coming decades. I am concerned that the national policy statements, although revised from the previous Government’s, still do not go far enough to ensure that we develop green and sustainable low-carbon power generation for the future. If the UK is to achieve its 2015 carbon targets, we need to make the right decisions now about low-carbon power generation. My concern is that, notwithstanding the Minister’s reassurances, these NPSs tie us into familiar carbon-emitting power generation and do not do enough to ensure investment in renewables and the opportunity to become a world leader in renewable technologies.

While in opposition, both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were vocal in their concerns about the Infrastructure Planning Commission. I was encouraged to hear the coalition Government announce in the first weeks of their tenure their intention to abolish the IPC. However, the timing of the NPSs and the Localism Bill, under which the IPC will, I hope, be abolished, means that during the next 12 months the IPC will make decisions about infrastructure planning on the strengths of these NPSs. It is therefore possible for the IPC in the coming 12 months to grant permission to build a significant number of coal and gas-fired power stations. I would be interested in the Minister’s comments on this supposition. That permission is possible within the framework offered by these revised NPSs. I understand that several applications are already being considered, which, if granted, could lock the UK into another generation of carbon-emitting energy supply. I would like to be corrected and proved wrong; perhaps the Minister will do so shortly. I cannot believe that this is the Government’s intention, bearing in mind their commitment to being the greenest Government ever. However, this may be an unintended consequence of these statements.

It is also possible that this year the IPC will grant planning permission to several nuclear power stations. Again, I would like to be corrected but I understand that this is a possibility. I know that this will be debated on Thursday. I hope your Lordships will give me permission to make just one point about this now because, unfortunately, I cannot be in the House on Thursday. The Government have a responsibility to respond seriously to concerns raised in the debates on the previous NPSs which have not been adequately addressed by the revised nuclear NPS. The Minister may remember that I raised concerns about the impact of expected rising sea levels, as a result of climate change, on the security of nuclear power stations and the long-term safe storage of nuclear waste. Although there is reference to sea level rise and flooding in these papers, I encourage the Minister to look again at the risk assessment on these projects, especially in respect of four of the eight sites—Bradwell, Oldbury, Sellafield and Sizewell—which in my opinion lack sufficient reassurance for local communities.

The Minister will be aware that during consideration of the Planning Bill and in the NPS debates under the previous Government, I raised concerns about counting the carbon. I am disappointed to see that the revised NPSs still do not include this specific requirement. The Committee on Climate Change recommended that applicants conduct,

“a full life-cycle carbon assessment”,

of their proposal, to be considered by the IPC. However, even with this recommendation, the Government do not seem to accept the importance of counting the carbon. From what the Minister has just said, I accept that the environmental impact assessment directive goes some way to addressing this, as does the Climate Change Act. However, I fail to be convinced that this is enough. I urge the Minister to reconsider the inclusion of a requirement in the NPS for full carbon counting. If this is not done, we could find ourselves building stations that pull the rug from beneath the Government’s explicit targets on reducing carbon emissions.

By the time the responsibility for decisions about major infrastructure moves to the Secretary of State, a number of infrastructure applications may well have been granted. My concern is not simply that we will find ourselves locked into carbon-emitting energy generation for decades but that we will have missed the opportunity to participate in the growing global green economy. As I am sure the Minister will be aware, according to research done by the Pew Center, China is emerging as the world’s cleanest energy powerhouse. It has already become the world’s leading investor in renewables, aiming for 15 per cent of its energy to be generated through renewables by 2020. It has already designated five provinces and eight cities as low-carbon pilots, representing some 350 million people—27 per cent of the population—and a third of its economy. The centre of gravity is shifting from west to east not just for the world’s economy but for its green economy. We have in these blue folders before us a global economic opportunity. I wonder—the Minister may like to address this point—whether this was on the agenda of the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of China yesterday.

We must look in these revised NPSs for a sound road map towards creating a secure energy supply that is green and sustainable, one which enables the Government to live up to their claim to be the greenest Government ever and enables the UK to be a global market leader in green energy generation.