Decarbonisation

Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Inglewood

Thursday 13th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My noble friend makes an important point. On all these policies, we have to make sure that we get the balance right between fulfilling our legally binding commitments and making sure we do not disadvantage consumers and drive up costs for ordinary men and women.

[Lord Inglewood (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that emissions trading schemes offer a very valuable opportunity for regions of both this country and elsewhere that are essentially rural and agricultural, away from centres of population and wealth at present, to generate an income that they desperately need to level up the living standards of people in these places to some kind of equivalence with the richer parts of the country?

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I understand the point that my noble friend is making. A happy by-product for the Treasury of the emissions trading scheme is the considerable revenue that it generates, and I am sure that it is spending all this money very wisely.

Storm Arwen

Debate between Lord Callanan and Lord Inglewood

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My noble friend makes some good points, and I am obviously pleased to hear that his property was not too badly affected. As he knows, I know the area well and I am pleased that his power managed to be left in place. He makes some very good points about the totality of the damage, not just to public infrastructure and essential services, but to local authorities’ premises and the property of private businesses; it will be immense. Our priority at the moment is to get everybody restored and back on to the network, but we will need to learn the lessons and look at what we can do to help the affected communities in future.

[Lord Inglewood (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and a landowner in Cumbria who was not directly affected by the power cuts. Can the Minister confirm that the capacity of the infrastructure to respond to events like this is equivalent in the various parts of England, in particular between the north and south?