Draft Carbon Budget Order 2016
Debate between Barry Gardiner and Callum McCaig(8 years, 4 months ago)
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Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Buck. I too welcome the Minister to his position and offer my commiserations on so quickly having to speak on a hugely important and quite technical issue.
I associate myself with almost everything that the hon. Member for Brent North said and will not repeat much of it—
Callum McCaig
Would that be the lack of repetition or the agreement, or a combination of the two? We welcome the Government’s proposed 57% reduction. The clarity around how that is delivered cannot come soon enough. I understand that it requires detailed analysis, but it is clear what will and will not be required.
The Minister said that the draft order provides the certainty that is required. It does to a degree but far more certainty is required. Essential reading for the Minister, new in post, is the Energy and Climate Change Committee report on investor confidence. The sector, which is key to delivering what this legislation proposes to do today, has been damaged by the uncertainty. That requires amends across a number of different energy aspects; I cannot stress how important that is.
What is also fundamental is the potential. This is not just something that we have to do; it is a massive opportunity. The Minister’s predecessors talked about the opportunities for offshore wind. The UK has done well and continues to do well in that and in other areas. There is tremendous economic opportunity in being at the cutting edge when it comes to tackling climate change.
I can understand why we might not get clarity today on the emissions trading scheme, but we need to know what is happening with it. We also need clarity on the EU’s internal energy market and whether, as part of the negotiations for Brexit, it will be proposed that we maintain membership of that developing body. My view is that that would absolutely be the correct thing to do; I urge the Minister to pursue that course.
Finally, I reiterate the comments of the hon. Member for Brent North pressing for the ratification of the Paris agreement as soon as possible. That cannot come soon enough.
Energy Network Charges
Debate between Barry Gardiner and Callum McCaigWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
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Barry Gardiner
I agree that many factors come together to push people into fuel poverty and into poverty. They have been ably outlined by the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues. The point I am making is that here we have something that affects not just one part of the United Kingdom but many parts of England and Wales, as the Ofgem report clearly shows.
Barry Gardiner
I felt that the debate had been unbalanced in how the facts were presented, which implied that this was an injustice being done by the Westminster Government to poor Scotland.
Barry Gardiner
Mrs Main, I am mindful of your ruling. I simply wanted to say I accept that there is an issue of justice and fairness, but wider effects are being felt all around the UK. If we keep this issue in that context rather than trying to make it about “us” and “them” and simple victimisation, we will have a much better opportunity to resolve the problems that do exist.
Barry Gardiner
I will finally take the intervention of the hon. Member for Aberdeen South.
Callum McCaig
I accept the point that they may be relatively small figures for individuals—they may be generally quite important to them for the reasons outlined—but, to use the hon. Gentleman’s own figures and multiply the £60 benefit by 700,000 people, this is not quite back-of-a-fag-packet but that is £42 million being needlessly taken out of the economy of the north of Scotland. That would make a transformational impact if it were reversed, and that is the point being made.
Climate Change and Flooding
Debate between Barry Gardiner and Callum McCaig(8 years, 11 months ago)
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Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) (SNP)
Floods are clearly devastating at any time, but never more so than at this time of year. We have heard a number of eloquent speeches about the devastation that the floods have wrought, but we also need to remember that we are in a fortunate position, as a rich advanced nation, in that we can afford to rebuild, to rehouse and to protect those who are affected by flooding. Those who are affected by climate change in other parts of the world will not be so fortunate.
For me, the stand-out aspect of the Paris agreement was the $100 billion for the mitigation of climate change. That will allow the poorest nations access to the finance they need to develop in a way that will allow the planet to be protected. It will also give us the opportunity to lock in low carbon emissions without locking in poverty. That is fundamental to the way in which we deal with what has rightly been described as the greatest threat that humanity is facing.
My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Calum Kerr) mentioned the Scottish Government’s climate justice fund, and we as a party are rightly proud of that. This is not a devolved matter, but we have sought to put our money where our mouth is. That money has to be seen as an additional contribution, however; it cannot be taken out of the pot because of what we have done. That needs to be respected nationally and repeated internationally.
We have had many debates in this place on the changes that have been made to the renewables obligation and to the green economy more widely. It disappoints me to state that our target in Scotland of a 100% renewable electricity generation is under threat because of changes to the renewables obligation and the prevarication over contracts for difference. There has also been much slower progress over heat, which represents a bigger challenge in relation to carbon reduction. It is pleasing that there will still be some form of support through the renewable heat incentive, but in the context of what we are dealing with following Paris, the £700 million that has been taken out seems like yet another short-sighted move.
Speaking of short-sighted approaches, the decision on carbon capture and storage is one of the worst that we have heard, and I will continue to bang the drum about that. There has been prevarication over CCS for a number of years. This process just needs to be done. We are talking about spending billions of pounds to prevent the symptoms, but we are not trying to tackle the cure. If we were to put £1 billion into carbon capture and storage, the reduction in the impact of flooding would be a potential game changer. Using carbon capture and storage is the most straightforward way of dealing with the matter. It also has the least impact on our economic model. It allows us to extract the fossil fuels that we discussed—shale, North sea oil or whatever—without having to invest. We will still have to invest in other technologies, but this gives us an opportunity.
Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)
Did the hon. Gentleman share a sense of comedy yesterday when the Secretary of State spoke on this matter? She said:
“I believe that CCS is going to play an important part in decarbonising in the future”.—[Official Report, 14 December 2015; Vol. 603, c. 1297.]
She then went on to say that, just for now, the Government are cutting the £1 billion subsidy towards it.
Callum McCaig
It was comedy of the blackest sort. It is short-sighted and it does not take into account how we can target the reduction at industry, as has been ably suggested.
The action here falls very short of the rhetoric, and very, very short of what is required to deliver and protect those people, both at home and abroad, from the impact of climate change. We need to up our game. It is time that we reset the reset button. I am happy if we in the Scottish National party join the high ambition coalition of the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) here in the UK. The SNP is more than ready and willing to play our part in achieving that ambition.