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 steps his Department is taking to provide transition pathways for oil and gas workers.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Clean Energy Mission will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. The UK has a highly skilled oil and gas workforce, with high transferability of skills to these new roles.
The Office for Clean Energy Jobs (OCEJ) has been created to ensure that clean energy jobs are abundant, high quality, paid fairly, and have favourable terms and good working conditions.
The OCEJ will also set out targeted interventions to support specific skills needs in the clean energy workforce. It recently announced support for the Energy Skills Passport to support oil and gas workers into new roles in the clean energy sector.
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, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) was created in February 2023, so no information is held for periods prior to that date.
The Departments spend on Consultancy Fees in financial year 23/24 can be found in the 2023/24 Annual Report, available here.
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.