Energy Prices
Lord Sikka Excerpts(4 days, 11 hours ago)
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Lord Sikka
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to control energy prices.
The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath) (Lab)
My Lords, the Government believe that the best way to protect bill payers and to mitigate the energy price spikes that we saw in 2022 is through our mission to deliver clean power by 2030. Under the default tariff price cut, Ofgem has capped the profits of energy suppliers in the retail market. In addition, the Government are reviewing Ofgem’s role to ensure that it is a strong consumer champion.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the reply. We need a glimpse of reality here: between 2020 and 2024, the UK’s 20 biggest energy companies made an operating profit of £483.4 billion—yes, noble Lords heard that figure correctly—which is a major cause of social problems. Steel, shipbuilding and engineering industries are struggling, 6.1 million households are in fuel poverty and 110,000 pensioners a year are dying in fuel poverty. The Government have three non-mutually exclusive policy options: price controls, public ownership, and worker-elected and consumer-elected directors on company boards. What proposals would the Minister like to offer for ending profiteering in the energy industry?
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for his support. The issue of prices is of course serious for both business and domestic customers. That is why we have the warm home discount and the support given to businesses that use energy intensively. Clearly, this is a continuing issue that will be solved only if we can wean ourselves off the international gas markets, which we are going to do by moving towards clean power. I just say to my noble friend that Ofgem does in fact cap the profits of energy suppliers in the retail market; they are capped at 2.4%.
Paying Polluters: UN Report
Lord Sikka Excerpts(11 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Baroness is using the generality to refer to the specific. ISDS clauses are very useful in a whole range of different areas. I accept her point that there is some evidence of their misuse in the case of energy and climate change policies, and we will work with international partners to see how this can be mitigated. We are very careful to make sure that the ones to which we agree preserve our right to regulate. Other countries take their own decisions, of course.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, many developing countries are handicapped by clauses in foreign direct investment agreements—sometimes called stabilisation clauses—that forbid the hearing of disputes in local courts. As a result, local courts’ lawyers are unable to develop the expertise or necessary institutional structure to combat corporate power. What steps are the Government taking to ban the inclusion of such clauses in FDI agreements, at least for UK companies?
Climate Change: Aims for COP 28
Lord Sikka Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Baroness is right that action on methane is important. It is one of the focuses for discussion that we will take forward. I have answered questions on flaring before in this House. She will remember that we are taking action to eliminate flaring completely by the end of the decade. It has reduced considerably in recent years, but clearly we need to go further.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, the richest 1% are responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66% combined. We all know that a well-established principle is that the polluter must pay. The Government now have a choice. They can levy wealth taxes on the ultra-rich, to reduce their capacity to pollute, or let the climate crisis deepen. Which of these options will the Government exercise, given that they are keen to set the intellectual agenda for COP 28?
Lord Callanan (Con)
The noble Lord never disappoints in terms of his advocacy for more taxes on—well, everyone, effectively. He might want to talk to his own Front Bench about some of these policies. The UK is very proud of our record on decarbonisation and we are very proud of our record on helping the poorest communities. We have committed £11.6 billion of expenditure on international climate finance by 2025-26, including £3 billion to protect, restore and sustainably manage nature, and tripling the UK fund for adaptation to £1.5 billion by 2025—so we can be proud of our record.