Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of Ofgem’s decision to increase the energy price cap from October 2024.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofgem’s price cap increased for the period 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024 due to the increase in global wholesale energy prices. The Government believes that the only way to protect billpayers permanently from price shocks, is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on foreign, volatile energy markets, and help in our commitment to produce all of the UK's energy from clean power sources by 2030.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what criteria her Department uses to support the development of new energy technologies.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government’s Net Zero Research and Innovation Delivery Plan (2022-25) sets out the criteria for prioritising public sector investment in new energy technologies. This considers the technology’s likely contribution to maximising UK strategic advantage, focussing on UK business opportunities and jobs and developing UK energy security; its expected contribution to delivering the UK’s carbon budgets and major decarbonisation; and retaining optionality of different net zero pathways to ensure a cost-effective route to net zero.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, for what reason her Department did not publish the risk assessments for the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan.
Answered by Graham Stuart
These risk tables formed part of the advice provided to the Secretary of State in March 2023. This advice enabled the former Secretary of State to carry out his statutory duty under Section 13 of the Climate Change Act, through which he concluded that he had a package of proposals and policies in place to meet the UK’s carbon budget targets. At that time, the Department published the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, which outlined in detail the UK’s plans to meet its carbon budgets.
The Department was under no obligation to publish these detailed risk tables, which formed the basis of internal decision-making and advice. They have now been published in the context of ongoing litigation.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to her Department's press release entitled UK to host new London Energy Security Conference to rewire global energy resilience, published on 10 August 2023, what her planned timetable is for hosting an energy security summit.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake) today to Question UIN 12183.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has had discussions with her international counterparts on the potential merits of the UK joining the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) today to Question UIN 11295.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her planned timetable is for making a decision on the UK's membership of the Energy Charter Treaty.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 1 September 2023, the UK announced it would be reviewing its membership of the ECT if the modernised Treaty was not adopted by November 2023. The Government is considering the views of stakeholders in business, civil society, and Parliament, and will inform Parliament of the outcome in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the statement of Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance entitled Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance COP28 call to action, published on 11 December 2023.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK pushed strongly for a commitment to phase out unabated fossil fuels at COP28, playing a central role in achieving an outcome that, for the first time ever, calls for a global transition away from fossil fuels.
The UK is not a member of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. However, UK domestic policy on oil and gas is fully consistent with the COP28 agreement. Even with new licences, UK oil and gas production is projected to decline at 7% per year, faster than the global average rate of decline needed for a 1.5 degree pathway, according to the UN.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the UN entitled Paying polluters: the catastrophic consequences of investor-State dispute settlement for climate and environment action and human rights, published on 13 July 2023.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The Government takes note of the report.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the International Energy Agency's publication entitled The Oil and Gas Industry in Net Zero Transitions, published in November 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government reads publications from the International Energy Agency with interest and will consider the contents of its latest report carefully. As recognised in the report, the oil and gas industry is well placed to scale up some of the key technologies needed to reach net zero such as hydrogen, carbon capture, and offshore wind.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the report by Oxfam entitled Climate Equality: A planet for the 99%, published on 20 November 2023, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the proportion of carbon emissions generated by the (a) richest 1% and (b) poorest two-thirds of the world's population.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK has decarbonised more than any other economy. Between 1990 and 2021, the UK reduced its emissions by 48%. The UK works through COP and other forums to advocate for faster decarbonisation.
The UK is committed to spend £11.6bn on International Climate Finance (ICF) in those countries most affected by climate change. This includes a tripling of funding for climate adaptation from £500m in 2019 to £1.5bn in 2025.
In the published International Development White Paper, the UK announced that it will aim for more than half of all bilateral aid to go to least developed countries.