COP28
Debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Amanda Solloway(1 year ago)
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Amanda Solloway
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is about education; ensuring that people are educated and thinking about how we use our future energy. However, it is also incumbent on us to ensure that we offer choices, which is why we are committed to offshore and to making sure that we are investing in science and technology and getting all of that technology available, thus making energy available in lots of different forms.
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Ind)
After the last COP, the Prime Minister at the time, Boris Johnson, assured the House that there would be no funding whatsoever from British sources for fossil fuel developments anywhere in the world. Since then, the UK Government have announced their own fossil fuel developments with oil and gas extraction, so how on earth does the Minister expect to be taken seriously at COP when Britain itself is investing more in fossil fuels and then lecturing the rest of the world that they should not do so? Can she assure us that this COP is not just going to be an exercise in greenwash with a sideshow of oil dealing, and that it is going to be a serious attempt to deal with the serious, fundamental issues that this planet faces?
Amanda Solloway
Yes, UK production is declining. When we think about oil and gas, it is important that we think about having a balanced approach and making sure that we keep our supply going as it should. One of the things we are committed to is making sure that, on balance, we also have other options available. It is important to remember that, from an economic point of view, the jobs that are created are really important, from an oil and gas point of view, and of course that will be invested in green energy as well, so it is a cyclical thing to make sure that we are investing in our future.