Lord Marland
Main Page: Lord Marland (Conservative - Life peer)Environment: Low-carbon Technologies
Lord Marland Excerpts
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Marland)
I thank noble Lords: this has been an impressive debate of great quality, as I have come to expect. I could listen for a long time to what such eminent speakers have to say. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, for tabling this important question about what steps the Government are taking to encourage low-carbon technologies in the marketplace. I am delighted to have the opportunity to respond. I am sorry that he is suggesting that I should get on my bike so early in my ministerial career, because it does not bode well for our future interchange. I also commend the noble Lord on his work as honorary president of the EIC. This debate allows the EIC to hold the Government to account, which is fundamental to making decisions and keeping the integrity of what we are trying to deliver. We welcome many of the EIC’s recommendations. Its voice is clearly heard and its calls for action are much appreciated.
I am particularly pleased to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Prescott, on his much anticipated speech, which we all enjoyed. He was a key figure in the Kyoto agreement, showing genuine leadership and starting a platform for delivery. In my short time in the House, we have always enjoyed, respected and honoured forthright views. We are delighted to see the noble Lord here and look forward to listening to him with great interest in future.
This Government may be a coalition of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Benches, but we need to establish a cross-party coalition to deal with the major infrastructure changes and challenges that are required to develop low-carbon technology. We have a shared responsibility. Nothing can be achieved overnight. We cannot yet know the full range of technologies needed to facilitate the move to a low-carbon economy, but we can say that the transition will not happen without early action and strategic direction. We also need cross-party buy-in.
I will say a few words about what the Government are doing to encourage the transition to a low-carbon economy. The transition is about a genuine transformation of the UK economy. As the Prime Minister said, our economy is heavily reliant on a few industries and a few regions. We need to change that by giving the industries of the future the opportunity and incentive to grow. Low-carbon technologies, goods and services are central to that vision. What does that mean? First, it means that the UK has to be a world leader—I agree with noble Lords who said this. Already, the sector employs more than 900,000 people and is worth more than £112 billion a year. The UK has the sixth largest sector in the world. The global market is set to grow by approximately 4 per cent per year over the next five years, from £3.2 trillion. We need to put ourselves at the forefront of that growth, seizing the benefits for the UK while also showing international leadership and providing momentum for a global deal.
Secondly, it means a low-carbon transition for the whole economy. The low-carbon sector is vital, but it is not the whole story. All businesses need to re-engineer their products and services. All businesses, from aerospace to consumer products to retail, need to cut the environmental impact of the products and services that they produce in order for us to develop.
Thirdly, it means businesses and households reducing their energy use and improving their resource efficiency. The noble Lord, Lord Haskel, made the point that the previous Administration failed to educate. Education is vital in this area and I completely agree with him. There are sound commercial reasons for focusing on the move to a low-carbon economy. We are already taking steps to turn rhetoric into reality. However, we need to do that in a way that takes account of the financial context. A low-carbon economy cannot and should not be delivered by government expenditure. It needs to be delivered by getting the incentives right to enable the business community to invest. That means setting the right incentives and stimulating private sector investment. Furthermore, as the coalition has made clear, we will support the key technologies which are vital to the UK’s low-carbon future and which offer huge opportunities for economic benefit to the UK. These include offshore wind, marine energy, CCS and anaerobic digestion.
We are also ensuring that we have the right policies to stimulate demand for low-carbon technologies. They include the green new deal, which will help to create a new and much more dynamic market for energy-efficient goods and services, as well as helping consumers. We are committed to green government and shall lead by example, cutting emissions across government by 10 per cent. This comes within my personal bailiwick. I have just referred to the green new deal. We are also committed to the green investment bank to pump-prime investment in the new technologies and we are committed to cutting red tape. I have just written to 300 businesses that are relevant to our department asking for their views on what red tape we should cut.
I turn to the specific points made in the debate. I enjoyed the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, that we have to get on with it—a point made by other noble Lords, too. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, argued with his own Government as forcefully as he has with us. I shall desist from being partisan, but his argument presupposes that his Government did not get on with things. He pointed out that we will not be responding to many of the comments on our energy policy until October. However, the truth is that, within the next two weeks before the Summer Recess, we will be giving an annual statement covering most of our policies for the next period. The noble Lord referred to the CCC. Its report is excellent and noble Lords on all Benches seem to embrace most, if not all, of it. Because of the timing of the parliamentary Session and our need to have a sensible debate—as good a debate as we had previously on that subject—we are not going to opine on it until October. However, of course we need to get on with it and I take on board his remarks in that regard.
The noble Lord, Lord Bhattacharyya, referred to electric cars. He is completely right: this is part of a vision that needs to be endorsed. However, it cannot be endorsed unless we have a low-carbon supply of electricity. He is also right that this issue must have consumer focus. I am grateful for his remarks.
The noble Lord, Lord Prescott, commented on voluntary agreements. He is completely right about that. Cancun requires greater endeavour and greater success than we had in Copenhagen. However, we must not build up people’s expectations, as we did with regard to Copenhagen. This involves long-term debate and encouragement, as he rightly said and as he showed when in office. We need to keep up the pressure but we also need to keep expectations balanced.
The noble Lord, Lord Giddens, whose wonderful book, The Politics of Climate Change, has been very good reading for many of us on these Benches—my noble friend Lord Taylor and I have been indebted to him—talked about deeds, not words, and I think that I have covered that point. I have just been handed a note saying that time is passing very quickly. That is rather good, as it means that I do not need to answer most of his questions. However, he is right about CCS for gas. I can confirm that it is part of our policy to look at that.
I want to move on quickly to the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, who has done a fantastic job as chairman of the Environment Agency. He referred to the economic opportunity and said that we must show leadership. I want to make one particular point, which picks up on what the noble Lord, Lord Sugar, said. We are the leading market in offshore wind power. Only last week, we gave seven grants to seven British companies to deliver products that encourage offshore wind power. The noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury, is also right about the need to look at tidal power. Marine parks are central to our theme.
The noble Lords, Lord Berkeley and Lord Woolmer, talked about biomass. Personally, at this point I am not convinced that it is absolutely fundamental to our energy development, but we must look at all ways of obtaining a sustainable low-carbon economy.
I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, feels that he has handed over the baton to someone who will carry on his great work. I should tell him that the Prime Minister was in Washington this week with the Secretary of State, Christopher Huhne, talking to the American Government. He will be in India in two weeks’ time with the Minister for Climate Change, Mr Gregory Barker, and is in strong dialogue with China.
Noble Lords should rest assured that the coalition is determined to move to a low-carbon economy; we are determined to make it happen. It is vital for generations to come that we support each other, that this is a cross-party issue and that we establish a broad alliance. I invite noble Lords to continue with these debates, because they are fundamental to our keeping the broad alliance going in the future. Again, I thank all noble Lords for their valuable comments, which I have taken on board.