Oral Answers to Questions

Olivia Blake Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

There is still a considerable chunk of this Parliament left to run. As I have explained several times—I will say it again for the hon. Lady, who may have missed the point—we have already got pretty close to half the homes in this country being rated A to C —up from just 14%. We are well on our way to getting this job done. I appreciate her encouragement, but we will finish this off ourselves.

[Olivia Blake (Sheffield, Hallam) (Lab)]

2. What discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the potential scope of a co-ordinated withdrawal from the energy charter treaty.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Graham Stuart)]

I have not held discussions with EU counterparts on the scope of co-ordinated withdrawal from the energy charter treaty and note that the EU itself does not have an agreed position as yet. We are closely monitoring the situation on the ECT.

[Olivia Blake]

The energy charter treaty allows fossil fuel companies to sue Governments for loss of profits caused by decarbonising. Does the Minister agree that any treaty that punishes attempts to tackle the climate crisis is fundamentally wrong? Does he also agree with France, Spain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Slovenia, the European Parliament and the European Commission that modernising the ECT is impossible and that it is time to participate in a co-ordinated withdrawal from this deeply damaging treaty?