Climate Change: Progress

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lord Watts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am not going to stand at the Dispatch Box and say that we are going to rule this out completely. The noble Baroness will know that flood-plain building is possible in the UK at the moment. It is a heavily regulated process with significant planning requirements. We will obviously continue to look very carefully at these issues and whether the requirements are sufficient, but we do not think that a blanket ban is appropriate.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, how much influence can the British Government have on climate change, when many countries are still pumping out more and more gases that will damage the climate? How do the Government assess what we are doing and what other countries are doing?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I recognise the argument, but if every country that emitted the same emissions as the UK does took action, we would have a critical impact on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously, we negotiate within the COP process to encourage multilateral agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but I think that the real lesson of this report is that it sets out in detail the risk to this country and the world of the climate change that will come unless we act towards achieving net zero and reducing our greenhouse gases. This is a very stark reminder of why we should not detract from our pathway to net zero.

Scotland: New Nuclear Power Generation

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lord Watts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, those are very wise words from my noble friend.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, if the Scottish Government do not want nuclear power but are willing to use electricity that it has generated, should there not be a reflection of that in the price they pay?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, we are looking at the whole issue of zonal pricing, but I do not think we would go quite that far. It is interesting, though, that the Scottish Government were in favour of the extension to the current plant in Torness. I agree with my noble friend Lady Curran that we should work on that and be constructive in our approach. We have had fruitful discussions on some of the difficult issues around Grangemouth and the North Sea transition. We should build on the reset that the Prime Minister and the First Minister have taken forward, and we should articulate the advantage that nuclear power gives to all countries in Great Britain.

Energy Costs for Businesses

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lord Watts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, we should not speculate about this until we see actual evidence that it may come to pass. The real way to ensure continuity of supply is to do what we are doing, which is to move as quickly as possible to ensuring that we have homegrown, clean energy. This is what we are seeking to do.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, are we not in a time warp? The problems we now face were created 14 years ago by not having a Government that invested in clean power. Is it not time for them to take responsibility for the mess that they have left for Labour to clear up again?

Drax Power Limited: Ofgem Investigation

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lord Watts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

I remind the noble Lord that policy costs on bills have increased from £115 on average in 2010 to an estimated £309 in 2024, so a lot of this increase occurred under his Government and the previous Conservative and Lib Dem Administrations. If we are serious about going towards clean power and net zero then we have to accept that we must finance the development of new energy-generating structures, and that is the case for biomass. Equally, that has to be done under sustainability criteria regulations that will ensure it happens. As for the OBR, its analysis has highlighted that delayed action on reaching net zero will have significant negative fiscal and economic impacts.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is this not a case of the regulators letting down the public again? Do we not need to have more accountability for our regulators? I suggest that each regulator has to produce an annual report that goes to a committee of the House of Commons, so that we can review what they are doing. At the moment, they are badly letting us down.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I think that, by implication, my noble friend is being critical of Ofgem, but I must say that that is not my experience. Ofgem is actually a rigorous regulator. It produces an annual report, and of course it would appear before a Select Committee if required.