Energy: Prices and Supply

Lord Bridges of Headley Excerpts

Thursday 14th July 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

The noble Baroness is partly correct. Of course, we need to invest in the technologies of the future, which is why we are developing our green finance policies and a green taxonomy to help direct investment in those technologies. However, we will also need oil and gas as transition fuels, so it makes sense to continue to exploit our own resources.

[Lord Bridges of Headley (Con)]

My Lords, picking up on the noble Baroness’s original Question, it was reported in the Financial Times about 10 days ago that under the UK’s emergency gas plan, if our gas supplies fall short the United Kingdom will cut the supply of gas to Europe via the so-called interconnectors. Can my noble friend tell us whether that is the case?

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My noble friend will understand that I am not going to get into discussing emergency situations. Anything as drastic as that is extremely unlikely. All parts of Europe benefit from interconnected supplies of electricity and gas. It helps to secure both our energy supplies and resilience for our future, and that of other European countries.