Great British Energy Bill

Debate between Lord Teverson and Lord Ashcombe

Report stage
Tuesday 11th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, I shall talk briefly to Amendment 1, because I probably disagree with it rather more strongly than my Front-Bench colleague. That list of objectives is more a list of government objectives than company objectives. It seems absolutely impossible that the company could ever satisfy its objective to reduce energy costs in the UK in a sustainable way in its own right. That seems inappropriate, in that it would not be able to meet those objectives.

I agree absolutely with the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, that it is extremely unfortunate that we do not understand or know what the statement of strategic priorities is. That is the fault and that is the problem. On Amendment 1, I do not believe the company, with a budget of £8 billion, would be able in any way to meet all those objectives. I say also to the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, that I agree with her and I do not think my noble friend Lord Russell would expect that amendment to be part of the Bill. As he said, it is a probing amendment to understand what the Government’s position is on that amount of money into the future.

[Lord Ashcombe (Con)]

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lady Noakes in this first amendment, because the four objectives outlined are highly relevant. In particular, I shall focus on the second objective, energy security, where maintaining a balanced mix of electricity generation is crucial. As we know, this includes baseload nuclear, renewables, gas and supplementary power by interconnectors.

My primary concern, as will not surprise your Lordships, is gas. It is essential not only to continue production from our existing North Sea fields but to allow further exploration and development in order that we may discover more. At this point, I very much thank the Minister for the time we spent last week discussing this item.

I think it is relevant to point out that, according to research from the Library, the UK’s indigenous gas supply still met 43% of our national demand in 2023, covering electricity generation as well as commercial and domestic needs. However, to bridge the shortfall, we rely on imports from two main sources: Norway, which supplies 32% of our pipeline but faces a growing political and resource pressures due to the European energy crisis; and the United States, which provides 15% through LNG, with other countries contributing less than 5% each.

The environmental impact of importing gas is significant. As of 2022, emissions from Norwegian imports were 50% higher than those from UK production, while LNG imports from the United States generated more than 3.5 times the emissions. Additionally, electricity accounts for only 25% to 30% of the UK’s total energy demand, with the remainder still dependent on fossil fuels. Many of these same arguments can be used for the continued production of oil, even though it is not, I am glad to say, used in electricity generation.

Given these facts, it is imperative that we continue to utilise the UK’s own resources by lifting the current pause on oil and gas exploration and production. I realise that this is slightly counterintuitive but, by doing so, we can assist the growth agenda, protect our jobs in the North Sea, reduce unnecessary imports, prevent higher global emissions and avoid shifting the environmental burden on to other nations. This amendment will very much assist the objectives of Great British Energy.