Net-zero Emissions Target: Fossil Fuel Extraction Projects Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Baroness Blackstone
Main Page: Baroness Blackstone (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Blackstone's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Net-zero Emissions Target: Fossil Fuel Extraction Projects
Baroness Blackstone Excerpts(3 years ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The problem with the noble Baroness’s argument is that we currently get three-quarters of our energy from oil and gas. It is a declining percentage as we decarbonise, but we currently get three-quarters of our energy in that way. Would the Liberal Democrats prefer that energy to come from Saudi Arabia or Russia, or from British workers paying British taxes in the UK, paying contributions to the UK Exchequer? That is the choice that faces us.
Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)
My Lords, we have pledged to reduce methane by 30% by 2030, along with 103 other countries. Have the Government carried out an assessment of whether that is possible while they simultaneously allow new fossil fuel extraction projects to go ahead, and, if they have not, will the Minister commit to doing that as a due diligence exercise?
Lord Callanan (Con)
Of course we keep all these matters under review, and it is important that we meet our target. We are on a projection for net zero in 2050; we have a legal obligation to do that. Oil and gas projects will play a small and declining role as the years proceed, but in the short term we will need new projects.