Energy: Efficiency

Lord Judd Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judd]

My Lords, it is good to follow the noble Lord, Lord Teverson. Nobody takes these issues more seriously than he does and his knowledge is daunting. What he is raising and all the associated issues are absolutely central to future survival, sustainability and prosperity of our nation. The deliberations that are going on in government and elsewhere are of crucial significance. We all ought to be focusing on them, not just the usual few who concentrate on these matters.

At the outset I should mention Doha because it is intimately related to what we are talking about. Doha has been a significant step. I think that there are a lot of sceptics who feel that what was agreed has yet to be implemented. We want to see the evidence of implementation because it is in the implementation of what was agreed that the real tests will be, not in the good intentions. In retrospect it could turn into a cynical exercise. It must be made effective. I hope that the Minister will take a moment to reassure us on that issue.

One of the things that has become very clear is that in a country which has become used to cheap and easily available energy, those days are over for ever, and we have to adjust our behaviour as a nation to meet that. Of course, issues of equity and justice apply internationally at Doha but also in our own society. The methods of production, whether that involves plant or distribution, can have a disproportionate impact on less articulate, less well placed communities which have everything dumped in their immediate vicinity because the forces of NIMBYism take control. There is a real need to concentrate all the time on equity and justice in our own society—not to mention the aesthetic and environmental issues. Do we want to have a country worth living in or do we want one littered with energy infrastructure and distribution systems in which we can no longer get spiritual regeneration? These are all crucial issues.

I suggest that those issues are all related to the need in our nation for an immense culture change on the demand side. We really have to nurture a sense of national responsibility. Let me take, for example, fashion. I hope this will not be regarded as a joke because I think it is a very serious matter. We are entering the coldest part of winter. Fashion is all about smartness and elegance and how you look. Surely in a society that was taking its energy needs seriously, it would be about keeping warm. Why do we not give higher priority in our clothing and other designs to the need to keep warm and use less energy? What about our Parliamentary estate and Whitehall? Yes, there have been moves in this direction and they are to be welcomed, but it is still tinkering: we all know that. Noble Lords should walk around this building at night. How many lights are left on by us all? How much equipment is left on which need not be? Let us look at Whitehall and government institutions. How much waste is there still at that level? Where is the example to the nation? Surely, in our schools and universities, we need to have far more emphasis on talking about energy and economics with youngsters, students and post-graduates. There should be far greater emphasis on conservation. In engineering, why is there not greater priority given to the need to work on conservation, as distinct from just production methods and efficiency? We must put conservation and a changed living style much more centrally into our deliberations on these issues.

I find an inherent contradiction between a preoccupation with getting efficiency, trying to control prices and taking our responsibilities—some of which I just mentioned—seriously and having so much of the energy system dominated by private enterprise, which is about profit. There is a contradiction there. I am not ashamed to say that I have never been—I hope—a dogmatic person in my political beliefs, but I believe in pragmatism in the age in which we live. I cannot help but be convinced that the sphere of energy is an excellent example of an aspect of national life which should be better looked after by the nation as a nation within a co-ordinated and comprehensive approach to the necessary planning. We need to get the right people to do the right things within it rather than, as at the moment, trying to regulate the market as it develops its own thrusts and priorities. It seems that we are putting the whole thing back to front, and I would like to see a reassertion of national responsibility in these matters. That involves all the points that I mentioned earlier, but also involves ensuring that it is not just a departmental responsibility, but that it goes into the realms of higher education, the Civil Service and the parliamentary estate.

That brings me to one last issue—and I know that the Minister, who takes this matter very seriously, will forgive my mentioning it. There is one area in which, because of our insatiable demand for energy, we have a most critical issue. We have decided that it is necessary to have another generation of nuclear power. I cannot say that I am thrilled by this, but I am persuaded that it is necessary. Having been in government myself, I realise that decisions sometimes have to be made on balance, but once you have made them, the task is to get on with them as responsibly as possible. That is my general position on nuclear energy.

There is a problem, though, that we are going into the next generation of nuclear energy before we have started to solve the problem of the waste from the first nuclear generation. Scientists and others will tell us that we need not worry because the solutions are there, but the point is that we have not done it yet. I declare an interest as somebody who lives in west Cumbria. From another galaxy, we would look highly irresponsible for getting ourselves into a position now with this lethal stuff—which already exists and will have implications with gigantic dimensions for future generations hundreds or even thousands of years ahead—where we are leaving the decision as to whether we proceed with what is already on the map as a possible solution to the local authorities. I know many of the people in the local authorities and have great respect for them and admiration for their public service; but how do they begin to have at their disposal the expertise, knowledge and background to make key and critical decisions in this area?

This is a national responsibility that needs to be decided at the national level, even though of course we then consult with local authorities about the implications of how it might go forward. I would be far happier about the whole issue, as it develops in west Cumbria, if it was clear that, after bringing to bear the best possible minds, and scientific evidence, that we can as a nation, this was the best possible place to have it. We should have the best possible place in the UK, and not just somewhere that has been bamboozled, bludgeoned and bribed, if I may use the term, into having it. It is crucial that this is taken seriously, and we have all have a responsibility in this House for that.

I conclude with the theme I raised a little earlier. Whatever the point at which we dip in to these complex issues, I hope that we have not given up on strategic thinking in which we say, “Now look—efficiency, the cost, its social and environmental implications, and the safety of future generations cannot just be left largely to market forces playing, for example, against local authorities”. These issues demand national strategic thinking and planning of the highest quality.