Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, or plan to have, with the World Meteorological Organization about expanding that organisation's Water Programme to include (1) extreme flooding, and (2) wind damage.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is actively supporting advancement of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) water related activities through membership of the WMO Executive Council and the WMO Hydrological Coordination Panel. Water issues are recognised within WMO’s new Strategic Plan, which was approved by the World Meteorological Congress in 2019. The Government is supporting WMO to develop a Plan of Action that will strengthen operational National Hydrological Services in areas such as flood risk management, drought preparation, hydrological monitoring and water resources assessment.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their targets for the production of clean energy achieved by nuclear fusion by (1) the public, and (2) the private, sector.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what changes, if any, they have advocated to the World Meteorological Organization about the changes to the organisation and funding of the hydrological work of that organisation; and what are the connections of that work with the hydrological programmes of UNESCO.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK’s Permanent Representative to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), with support from the UK Hydrological Adviser, was actively engaged in discussions at the World Meteorological Congress in June 2019, promoting efficiency and transparency in the intergovernmental agreements on the budget and reform of WMO. The UK remain closely involved in the hydrological work of WMO, with the UK Hydrological Adviser promoting the establishment of appropriate links between WMO and UNESCO, supported by his role as vice-chair of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what analyses they have conducted into the operational lifetime of offshore and onshore wind energy machines; and what guidance they intend to provide in that regard to relevant individuals and organisations.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government does not provide guidance on the operational lifetime of wind turbines.
Previous government research relating to onshore wind turbine longevity is available on the government’s website, titled ‘Onshore Wind - Direct & Wider Economic Impacts’.
The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, a collaboration between Innovate UK and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, has jointly agreed innovation priorities around four areas, one of which is operations & maintenance and windfarm lifecycle.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the difficulties associated with the maintenance of wind turbines and associated equipment; and what steps they are taking, if any, to work with the offshore wind energy industry to address such difficulties.
Answered by Lord Henley
Operators are responsible for maintaining turbines and associated equipment for their projects.
The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, a collaboration between Innovate UK and ORE Catapult, has jointly agreed innovation priorities around four areas, one of which is operations & maintenance and windfarm lifecycle. As set out in the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, the sector will look to build on existing work by, for example, exploring the application of robotics and Artificial Intelligence in optimising maintenance and reducing costs.
The renewables share of electricity generation reached 33.3% in 2018 – a record high – with 111TWh generated from renewable sources. Offshore wind generated 26.6TWh which equated to 8% of the UK’s overall annual generation.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Lord Henley on 7 March, whether the proposed clauses on workers' rights for inclusion in the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill will include improvements to air quality and water quality both outside and inside the workplace.
Answered by Lord Henley
New EU legislation that provides workers’ rights which member states are obliged to confer will be covered by the proposed clauses. Workers’ rights include labour protections regarding health and safety at work. The Government will be required to report on those new rights, whether they go further than current domestic rights, and if so the action the Government proposes to take. Air and water quality standards are only in scope to the extent that they fall within the definition of workers’ rights.
The Government has been clear that the UK will maintain and enhance environmental protections as it leaves the EU. As part of the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government has set an ambition to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than it found it – and has already put in train a number of policies to achieve this.
The Environment Bill will be introduced early in the second Session of this Parliament, and will include ambitious legislative measures to take direct action to address the biggest environmental priorities of our age: air quality, nature recovery, waste and resource efficiency, and water resource management. In the Environment Bill the Government will legislate to ensure there is a robust framework for the maintenance and strengthening of environmental standards as the UK leaves the EU.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how, in developing policies to reduce annual average carbon emissions, they collaborate with other countries who share the same objectives.
Answered by Lord Henley
We work collaboratively with other countries to tackle climate change in a variety ways including via multi-lateral fora and global alliances.
We work on climate via the G7 and G20; we promote ambitious action alongside other countries via the High Ambition Coalition and we drive collective action on the ground through, for example, our hosting of the world’s first zero emission vehicle summit; and creation of Powering Past Coal Alliance, to reduce emissions from the most polluting fuel, which now has over 70 members. We play a key role within the UN Climate Framework, helping secure the agreement of 195 countries to sign up to the historic Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 and then bringing it to life last year at COP24 via the creation of a common rulebook. We are also working with our UN partners to ensure the Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September 2019 brings together key international actors, across the public and private sectors, to drive transformative action on building resilience to climate change.
UK leadership is reflected in the actions of other countries. For example, we were the first country to introduce long-term legally binding emission reduction target, which has now been emulated across the world, including by France, Denmark, Sweden and Mexico
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of research by the Renewable Energy Foundation, The Performance of Wind Farms in the UK and Denmark, published in December 2012, which demonstrates that the working lifetime of offshore wind turbines is shorter than previously thought; whether they intend to revise their low carbon-energy policy or policy on wind turbines as a result; and whether they support any development to turbine technology which could deliver increases to their working lifetime.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Department periodically reviews the evidence base on the generation costs of renewable electricity technologies, including their operational lifetimes, and when appropriate publishes reports on the topic. The most recent of these publications can be found on the gov.uk website, and a copy is also attached here.
The UK’s oldest offshore windfarm, Blyth (off the coast of Northumberland), was commissioned in 2000 and is still in operation today. The world’s oldest offshore windfarm, Vindeby in Denmark, was decommissioned in 2017 after 25 years of operation.
The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult has a programme of work looking at lifetime asset management and has recently announced an operations & maintenance centre of excellence in collaboration with the University of Hull.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to monitor any change in performance of wind turbines in on-shore and off-shore locations from their time of construction; whether they intend to publish assessments of the likely future lifetime of the wind turbine systems now being constructed in the UK; and if so, whether this information will be provided to organisations that are investing in such systems.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Department reviews generation performance of a range of existing and new renewables plants, including onshore and offshore wind, on an annual basis as part of setting the level of the Renewables Obligation. The most recent publication can be found here (copy also attached):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewables-obligation-level-calculations-201819
The Department periodically reviews the evidence base on the generation costs of renewable electricity technologies, including their lifetimes, and when appropriate publishes reports on the topic. The most recent of these publications can be found here and attached (copy also attached):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-november-2016
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Chesterton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which components of Euratom's work programme will the UK participate in following the current negotiations; and whether those will include regulation, safety, energy coordination, and long term research and development of fusion and nuclear waste policies.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government’s strategy is to seek a close association with Euratom, to the mutual benefit of the UK and the EU, and to provide maximum continuity for the civil nuclear sector. The components of this future relationship with Euratom are subject to negotiations with the EU. The UK will also seek to fully associate itself with the Euratom Research and Training Programme, including the Joint European Torus (JET) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and recognises that such an association would necessarily involve an appropriate financial contribution in line with other associated countries.