Net-zero Test for New Policies

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I understand the point that the noble Baroness is making—I know that she is very passionate on this subject, and we have debated it many times—but we have the most ambitious net-zero goals of all of the G7. The noble Baroness puts her head in her hands, but that is true. Of course, you could always argue that we should go further or faster, but that would be expensive and would affect our competitiveness. At the end of the day, the UK is responsible for 1% of worldwide emissions. We need to make sure that we go forward in a co-ordinated manner with other countries across the world and approach this problem together.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, before Christmas, I fed my noble friend the Minister what he took as a helpful line. I will try to do it again: where are we with tidal power?

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

The answer I gave my noble friend then was that tidal power is included in the latest contracts for difference round; I think the figure is £20 million that we propose to expend on it. My noble friend makes a good point that there are some very feasible tidal power projects, but we need to be realistic—tidal power will not contribute more than a small percentage of our power needs.