State of Climate and Nature
Debate between Lord Whitehead and Lord Redwood(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Lord Whitehead (Lab)
My noble friend sets the question for us all: how can we work across all the different sectors of government to get to our goal? The goal is not that action on climate change is a last-ditch attempt to try to produce a less miserable outcome for the future by mitigating, by a small amount, what is happening with global warming; it is finding a way to bring about a much better life for everybody in the context of the farming and industrial environments in which we live and the enjoyment of our personal and private lives. Joint action on adaptation and mitigation is a method of bringing about that better society. It is the most important thing we need to do to bring about a society that is not only bearable in the future but is instead a big improvement on what we have at the moment.
Lord Redwood (Con)
Why cut back and close jobs at home, shutting down oil and gas, food production and our factories when it increases world CO2? This is self-harm on a crazy scale. Why do the Government want to lose jobs and investment?
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
I am not sure I recognise much of the noble Lord’s intervention. As I have said, it is not the case that the Government are bent on a process of deindustrialisation and losing jobs. Jobs are transferring from the high-carbon economy to the low- carbon economy, and one of the duties of government, which this Government are carrying out, is to make sure there are good jobs in both the low-carbon and high-carbon economies, and that skills are transferred from the high-carbon economy to inform the low-carbon economy. That is exactly what is happening at the moment, so I really do not recognise the assertions the noble Lord makes about the future of society. Quite the opposite is taking place.
National Emergency Plan for Fuel
Debate between Lord Whitehead and Lord Redwood(3 months ago)
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Lord Whitehead (Lab)
Yes, the noble Lord asks me whether there is a crisis and there is one in place at the moment. However, we have considerable difficulty in determining exactly its direction and depth, precisely because we do not know what the position is and will be, particularly concerning the Strait of Hormuz, for the future. The response to that crisis, as far as the Government are concerned, clearly has to be to take every measure possible to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz is open—and open without tolls—for the passage of fuel across the world, but we do not know how long that will last.
The plans that we are therefore undertaking, particularly given the prices that may be an issue in global fuel scarcity, with various people trying to cannibalise everybody else’s fuel supply, are under our control nationally. We can therefore indeed intervene, if necessary, to make sure that those prices remain as stable as possible and, particularly as far as those who are in fuel poverty are concerned, that more people do not fall into fuel poverty as a result of those problems.
Lord Redwood (Con)
Two of our refineries have shut under this Government and the remaining four are at risk from high costs and very high taxes. What has emerged from government discussions with our refiners to expand our refinery output? That is the way to national security—not relying on product imports from dangerous parts of the world.
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
I do not quite recognise the noble Lord’s description that the four refineries in this country are at risk. Those are very large and stable refineries. As he knows, they continue to refine the forms of crude coming into the UK into petrol and other fuel products. Those refineries are set up to provide a particular kind of output based on the crude oil coming into them, and that is not necessarily a full spectrum of fuel products. Therefore, part of a strategy, as far as fuel is concerned for the future, is to look at where those refineries can expand and increase their production if possible, and to make sure that, where they are not able to easily refine the things we need, we have secure sources of those for the future.
Electricity: Domestic Pricing
Debate between Lord Whitehead and Lord Redwood(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Whitehead (Lab)
The Government are looking actively at many different ways of going further and faster as far as the green energy revolution is concerned. Indeed, they are actively looking at the Greenpeace and Stonehaven report on not only delinking but strategic reserves for gas in future. My personal view is that what they are proposing is a little early in the cycle but, nevertheless, could be an important element later on, in how the system stabilises itself once it is mainly renewables and low carbon.
Lord Redwood (Con)
Is the quickest way to get energy prices down not to cut some of the rip-off taxes that the Government impose? How does imposing an extra windfall tax help?
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
Imposing an extra windfall tax, on those elements of the system that are within the renewables orbit but outside the CfD arrangements, takes away the excess profits that those elements make as a result of being aligned with gas in charging those volatile prices. So it is a very sensible thing to do, to make sure that excess profits are not taken from consumers but instead reside with them as lower prices.
Fuel Supplies: War in Iran
Debate between Lord Whitehead and Lord Redwood(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Whitehead (Lab)
The issue of fuel supply through the Strait of Hormuz is relative to world supply and world prices; that is, because the UK obtains only a very small proportion of its supplies from the Middle East, the effect is more likely to be on prices across the world as other people seek to make up their supplies from different sources. The noble Lord is right that how we clear the Strait of Hormuz for those supplies has to be a question of disengagement, détente in the present conflict, and negotiation not in an ideal world but with those with whom we find ourselves in a negotiating position.
Lord Redwood (Con)
My Lords, do the Government understand that they have already presided over the closure of two of our oil refineries with their high-carbon taxes and unfriendly energy policy? Will they take urgent action to avoid the closure of the remaining ones, which would leave us without domestic supply and with shortages?
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
The noble Lord will not be surprised to hear that I do not agree with his analysis of why the two refineries that have closed in the UK have done so, but the four refineries that we have in the UK are all producing well and in a robust condition. The Government will continue to monitor that process, but there is no reason to believe that further refineries are likely to close in the near future.