Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Thursday 28th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

1. If he will set a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

9. If he will set a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030. [R]

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

11. If he will set a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2030.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Davey]

I should like to pay tribute to the hon. Lady, now that she has told people that she will not be standing at the next election. She has been a doughty champion of green issues in the House. However, I do not believe that this short delay of two years will have the impact that she describes. She should remember that we have the EU 2020 targets for energy efficiency, renewables and emissions; the Climate Change Act, with the carbon budgets running up to 2027; and the Energy Bill which provides the most secure framework, the levy control framework going up to 2020, and industrial strategies. This country is arguing for the most ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target of any EU member state. It is just not true that investors think that this Government are not committed to this issue.

[Chi Onwurah]

This Government talk loudly, and at times obscenely, about the costs of decarbonisation, but they say little about the benefits, such as the potential for green jobs on Tyneside, which leads the world in clean power. If the delay is not causing the lack of investment, why has investment in clean energy fallen by billions of pounds since this Government came to power? And what is the Secretary of State going to do to bring more green jobs to Tyneside?

[Mr Davey]

The hon. Lady should not talk down the sector or her own area. She ought to know, because we have debated the matter at the Dispatch Box, that £31 billion has been invested in renewable electricity since 2010. We have doubled the amount of renewable electricity generation since we came to power.