Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris McDonald and Irene Campbell

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris McDonald]

I am not sure if the shadow Secretary of State is conflating the various carbon taxes with the emissions trading scheme, but to be clear: the Government do not set or comment on the value of the carbon in the emissions trading scheme. That is a matter for the market. It is of course a policy on which the previous Government were very keen, because it drives the most efficient forms of decarbonisation. Ultimately, it places a price on carbon emissions that ensures private capital floods into the right places to decarbonise, as we have seen so successfully with the power sector in the UK.

[Irene Campbell (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)]

6. What estimate he has made of the potential impact of the construction of small modular reactors on the number of clean energy jobs.