Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make it his policy to include food systems as a priority within Nationally Determined Contributions.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK will announce a 1.5°C aligned 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution at COP29, followed by publication of the detail underpinning it - known as Information to facilitate Clarity, Transparency and Understanding (ICTU) - ahead of the February 2025 deadline. The UK's NDC is an economy-wide target, incorporating all greenhouse gas emissions and sectors, including from agriculture, waste and land-use. As a signatory of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, the UK is committed to integrating agriculture and food systems into our NDCs, National Adaptation Plans, and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made on the implementation of the Declarations between the UK and North Seas countries at the North Sea Summit in April 2023.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Ostend Declarations commit signatories to delivering cross-border projects in the North Seas, and set out a shared target of 300GW of offshore wind in the North Seas by 2050.
We are committed to radically increasing the deployment of offshore wind, essential to meet our net zero goals. The UK is a world leader in offshore wind, with 14.8 GW of generation capacity, the highest deployment in Europe.
We have been working closely with the North Seas partners to unlock the renewable potential of the North Seas, including offshore wind and offshore hybrid assets. Minister McCarthy will attend the North Seas Energy Cooperation Ministerial Meeting in Denmark on 24 October to advance these goals, and we are preparing for the North Sea Summit in Hamburg next June.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to implement procurement rules to give greater weight to the inclusion of green steel in purchased goods and services.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Building demand for low carbon products is essential for achieving net zero. Public procurement is a key lever for driving demand. At COP28 the UK declared its intention to meet international green procurement pledges for low emission steel and concrete in public construction by 2030 (link here).
Ministers are considering their options to grow demand for low carbon steel, cement and concrete, the first step of which is resolving questions such as how to measure embodied emissions in products and defining what a low carbon product is.
The Government will consult on options for answering these questions in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will establish a definition for (a) lower emission and (b) net zero steel.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Building demand for low carbon products is essential for achieving net zero. Public procurement is a key lever for driving demand. At COP28 the UK declared its intention to meet international green procurement pledges for low emission steel and concrete in public construction by 2030 (link here).
Ministers are considering their options to grow demand for low carbon steel, cement and concrete, the first step of which is resolving questions such as how to measure embodied emissions in products and defining what a low carbon product is.
The Government will consult on options for answering these questions in due course.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that programmes to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient protect against extreme heat as well as cold.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has started delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, including a new Warm Homes: Local Grant, and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund. These schemes require installers to be Trustmark registered and measures to be installed in accordance with the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2030 and PAS 2035. This ensures the risks of unintended consequences, such as mould, condensation due to poor ventilation and overheating, are minimised.
The Warm Homes Plan will ensure that homes are fit for the future. To support policy development in this area, the Government is conducting research to identify which building types are most vulnerable to extreme heat and appropriate adaptation solutions.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reprioritising the grid connection queue to favour viable projects with planning consent over (a) stalled and (b) speculative projects that have booked grid capacity.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government is working at pace with Ofgem, the Electricity System Operator (ESO), and network companies to accelerate electricity network connections. The ESO is developing proposals with stakeholders to raise requirements to obtain and retain a connection agreement. Under these proposals, stalled or speculative projects that cannot demonstrate sufficient progress would be removed from the connection queue and capacity reallocated to viable projects.
The ESO expects to submit its proposals to Ofgem in December 2024, for a decision in spring 2025.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage flexibility in grid connection rules to allow operators to co-locate (a) wind, (b) solar, (c) battery and (d) other technologies through single points of connection.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Connection customers are already permitted to co-locate different technologies through a single connection point.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what his planned timeline is for rolling out his Department’s Warm Homes Plan.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Through the Warm Homes Plan, we will invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next five years in clean heat and energy efficiency, upgrading five million homes through solutions like low carbon heating and improved insulation. We will set out the full details of our Warm Homes Plan, and the approach to Net Zero Buildings more broadly, after the completion of the Spending Review Process.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing grid connection rules restricting operators from directly supplying households unless they acquire the same supply licence as large scale utility companies.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Small-scale electricity generation sites can benefit from an exemption, which means that they do not require a licence from Ofgem to generate electricity or to supply to local customers. Ofgem has further flexibility to grant supply licences to generation sites that are above the exemptions threshold when they are restricted to specified local areas.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using heat batteries for households who experience challenges in installing a heat pump.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Heat batteries are one of the most promising alternative electric heating technologies, because they utilise time of use tariffs, do not require outside space and are cheaper to install than heat pumps in some circumstance. However, heat batteries are also less efficient than heat pumps and will therefore use more energy to meet the same heating demand. This can add to the burden on the electricity network, as well as resulting in higher bills for property owners. The Government will continue to make further assessments of heat batteries as the supporting evidence base develops.