Chi Onwurah
Main Page: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
4. What his assessment is of the potential effect on the UK wind industry of not setting a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
7. What representations he has received on setting a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)
The Government have listened to a wide range of views on the issue of setting a decarbonisation target and have legislated to set one. We fully recognise that investor certainty is essential to delivering our energy and climate goals at the least cost and have already provided very clear signals to industry about the long-term trajectory of the electricity sector; for example, through our commitment to the levy control framework, through the Energy Bill, through carbon budgets and through our commitment to ambitious long-run targets on renewables, power sector decarbonisation and carbon emission reductions.
Chi Onwurah
When I asked the Prime Minister yesterday to show some leadership and stand up for British business and green jobs by setting a target, he claimed that business was against it, but when the Secretary of State was asked earlier, he could not name a single business that opposed it. Can he now name a business that has thanked him for voting against the target?
Mr Davey
The hon. Lady needs to look at what has happened. We have drafted the legislation so that we can set a target and that has been welcomed. She should remember that when the draft Energy Bill was published and we first started to discuss electricity market reform, there were no proposals to set a power sector decarbonisation target—not from the Opposition or from any other party in this House—but I, as Secretary of State, argued in the Government to set such a target, and that is what we have done.