Carbon Budget Order 2026

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, this has been a very interesting debate so far. I thank my noble friend for his very detailed explanation of the order before us. I am not sure that we are spending much time on the detail of the order, as he requested, and we are clearly turning this into a debate about net zero and climate change. Although the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, acknowledged climate change, I must say that, as the noble Lord, Lord Deben, said, it is very difficult to square what is being said tonight by Members of the party opposite—and, I suspect, by rather a few more of them as the debate ensues—with what the Conservative Government did. After all, it was the Conservative Government who legislated for net zero. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Redwood, did not vote for it, but it was their responsibility. They signed the Paris Agreement. The Sunak Government made a bold statement that

“energy transition and net zero are among the greatest opportunities facing this country”,

as indeed they are. We may hear a little bit about North Sea oil and gas, as the party opposite now seems obsessed with that. It is worth pointing out that, between 2010 and 2024, production in the North Sea halved under the Conservative Government’s stewardship.

I come back to the pertinent point made by the noble Lord, Lord Deben. Both the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and the noble Lord, Lord Redwood, have criticised carbon budgets and the whole net-zero approach by the Government, but what is the alternative? It is rare now for members of the Conservative Party to say that they do not believe in climate change, but it is almost, as St Augustine said, “Oh Lord, deliver us from sin, but not yet”—“We will tackle climate change at some point in the future, but let us carry on with our obsession with oil and gas”.

I turn to business. The noble Lord, Lord Deben, referred to the CBI report, but this is one of the most thriving sectors of our economy. In fact, looking at the last year of the Conservative Government, it was the one sector that actually gave us some growth in the economy, yet they want to snap it off, whereas our competitors have seen that the impact of the green/net-zero economy can be profoundly changing and progressive and give so many opportunities to people. The CBI report says that the net-zero economy now supports 1.1 million full-time equivalent jobs—and they are good jobs, jobs that our young people can go into.

On China and the international experience, we are lectured that, somehow, by going into a leadership role in relation to decarbonisation, we are letting other countries take great advantage. If noble Lords look at the reports of the International Energy Agency, particularly its 2025 report on renewables, they will see that there is a huge advance in the use of low-carbon energies globally. China currently accounts for 60% of global renewable capacity growth. It is going to meet its targets way ahead of schedule, in 2035. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Deben: it tends to set conservative targets and then meet them much more quickly, so to talk about China as if it is simply carrying on with oil, gas and coal is misleading.

The North Sea, if I can just end on that, has been a tremendous asset to our country. If only we had set up a sovereign wealth fund to invest in our infrastructure, like Norway did, I think we would be in a much better condition. The people working there are brilliant people, but if noble Lords look at the North Sea Transition Authority’s estimates, it reckons that only around 10% of the basin’s historic output could be recovered in the future. Analysis by the University of Oxford’s Smith School, using pre-crisis price data, suggests that households powered fully by renewable energy could save up to £441 per year on energy bills. By comparison, maximising North Sea oil and gas extraction was estimated to reduce household costs by around £16 to £82 per year. As we know, increasing UK production—and it would be a marginal increase in UK production—would not directly reduce prices, because we do not influence global prices and we buy on the global market.

I also point out that the Conservative Government, over 14 years, issued many licences for expropriation and extraction in the North Sea. That actually led to only 20 developments, which, I understand, would produce the equivalent of just 36 days of extra gas. So the challenge for the party opposite, it seems to me, is to stop running down the approach and the consensus that we have on net zero, and if it is opposed to it, it should come up with some suggestions about how we might go forward.