Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill

Lord Lennie Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

My Lords, I speak as a Member replacing the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, on the Environment and Climate Change Committee and as a resident of the North Shields Fish Quay on the mouth of the Tyne—you will find it if you go to Newcastle and turn right—which is currently celebrating 800 years since its foundation. It is well worth a visit for anyone who has a day or two to spare.

I have never considered the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, to have been an eco-warrior—but fair play to him. He was one of the early signatories, of the 145 representing different nations, to the agreement that gives rise to this piece of legislation. So credit where credit is due: without that signatory, we would not be where we are today. I also give credit to the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, for her role in that.

I welcome the return to Parliament of Labour’s own green-energy warrior, Alan Whitehead—my noble friend the Minister—who spoke with great authority, experience and expertise when making his impassioned maiden speech, for which he is to be truly congratulated.

Among others celebrating the regulation of the deep blue seas, which we are about to pass, will be the sharks, whales, turtles and other marine life that can be assured that nations recognise the need to exercise control over their own activities and craft sailing in the high seas. This is excellent news and the Government are to be congratulated on committing to this legislation. It is unfortunate, as the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, pointed out, that some countries have not yet signed, but the door remains open for that to happen.

Our failure to pass this legislation—and I notice that the noble Lord, Lord Fuller, has some objections to it—would have a seriously detrimental effect on the UK’s ability to influence a wider community and would present a risk of reputational damage to our position as one of the leaders in achieving global biodiversity targets.

The Bill will achieve a number of important things. MPAs will be established on the high seas, meaning that they should benefit from protections, just as national waters do, and there will be fair and shared access to the benefits of research and discovery, which will benefit the health and well-being of all signatory nations, meaning that smaller nations and less economically powerful nations will not be disadvantaged as breakthroughs are made in medicine and agricultural fields. It will strengthen our environmental impact assessments in determining whether potential gains outweigh the risks of marine exploration. It will increase and improve capacity in building, and technology transfer is making for a sustainable and inclusive ocean economy and overcoming the unlicensed approach.

I have just one question for the Minister. How big a deal is the absence of nations such as the United States from the early signatories of this agreement?

UK Energy: Grid Decarbonisation

Lord Lennie Excerpts

Monday 24th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not think there is any confusion at all. The policy is quite clear. We value our agricultural land, and the total amount of it that could be used by solar in future, over a considerable number of years, is less than 1%. The noble Lord may have noticed that, on 21 March, only two or three days ago, Great British Energy announced that its first major product will be the solar accelerator, which will enable hundreds of schools and hospitals across England to install new rooftop solar power. We are not just talking about the use of agricultural land. We want to see an expansion of solar, but it can be in relation to schools and hospitals and buildings as well.

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

My Lords, when will the Government make a decision about the awarding of a contract for advanced small modular reactors in this country?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, a process for small modular reactors is being undertaken by Great British Nuclear at the moment. It has undertaken a technology appraisal, tenders have now come in, and I expect that the outcome of the process will be known by the end of spring. That is tied into SR discussions.

Gas Storage Levels

Lord Lennie Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I was present during the debate on Thursday on the Select Committee’s excellent report on this very subject. I refer my friend the noble Baroness to the action plan that my department issued only a few weeks ago, estimating that between 40 gigawatts and 50 gigawatts of dispatchable and long-duration flexible capacity could be needed by 2030. We are going to take a number of interventions to ensure that this happens. We have already announced a ground-breaking deal with Net Zero Teesside, our first power CCUS project. We are developing a hydrogen-to-power business model to derisk investment in that area. Ofgem will be introducing the cap and floor scheme to support investment in long-term duration electricity storage. We aim to open the scheme to applications in quarter 2 of 2025. We fully take on board the point that the noble Baroness makes and the Select Committee report.

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

My Lords, what was the level of storage at the Rough facility when Labour last left office in 2010 and what happened to that storage facility after the Tories took power?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, Rough was closed in 2017. At that time, when the party opposite was in government, I do not think that it raised any concerns at all. Indeed, the then Energy Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Harrington, said that the closure of Rough would not cause a problem with security. In 2022, Centrica decided to re-open the site. This was a commercial decision by the company. It now seeks government support. One needs to draw a line between the announcement that it made last week and its request for government support.