Jackdaw Gas Field

Lord Krebs Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

Does it not make a change to hear the Greens actually talk about environmental issues? Being Scottish, I would emphasise that point. The noble Baroness mentioned methane. The North Sea oil and gas sector has one of the lowest methane emission intensities globally. The industry is already taking action to cut its methane emissions by stopping leaks and reducing the use of venting and flaring to deliberately release gas. This saw the industry reach its 2025 methane intensity target of 0.2% five years early in 2020, meaning that, for every 1,000 units of gas sold, no more than two units should be released as methane.

I will take the opportunity to address the noble Baroness on this issue, because I have not had the opportunity before. She properly and understandably presses this Government on their climate commitments and the need to build new renewables infrastructure. I plead with her to talk to some of the Green Party’s Members of Parliament and ask them to please stop objecting to renewables development in their own constituencies, because that might help us move forward on this agenda.

[Lord Krebs (CB)]

My Lords, the National Energy System Operator—NESO—has four future energy scenarios. Two things are true about these four scenarios: first, the different scenarios will require different amounts of fossil fuel in 2050; and, secondly, the decision about which of these paths the Government wish to follow has to be made now, because each of the scenarios will have long-term implications for investment in infrastructure. Can the Minister tell us whether the Government have decided to follow one of NESO’s future energy scenarios? If they have not decided, when will they decide which one they want to choose?

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

I was warned about questions from the Cross-Benchers: that they are always very thorough and demanding, and so it has come to pass. I know of NESO and some of that work, but I cannot list the four scenarios. I can say that we are looking at the combination and at the demands we will need to have met by 2050 to make sure that we have a robust and absolute energy supply. I know that NESO, despite the current investigations that are under way, has emphatically said that we are on that course. I guarantee the noble Lord that this Government will never take a decision that undermines a robust energy supply, but we are also very cognisant of climate change, because that has a knock-on effect on our energy supply. We believe that strikes the right balance and takes us on the journey we need to be on. Having said that, I do not want to be dismissive of the substance of the noble Lord’s question; it is something we should always be alert to. I will look at the different models and perhaps have a further discussion with the noble Lord.