Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Climate Change Committee’s 2021 Progress Report to Parliament, if he will make it his policy ahead of COP26 to commit to phasing out unabated gas generation by 2035.

Following the Climate Change Committee’s advised budget level does not mean that government is agreeing to their specific policy recommendations. We will bring forward our own policies to meet carbon budgets, and the Net Zero Strategy (to be published before COP26) will set out our own vision for transitioning to a net zero economy.

As we transition to net zero emissions by 2050, our record levels of investment in renewables will meet a large part of the increasing electricity demand, alongside technologies such as storage, demand side response, interconnection, CCUS-enabled generation and low carbon hydrogen. However, unabated natural gas generation will continue to provide a critical source of firm and dispatchable electricity, ensuring security of supply whilst we develop and deploy low carbon alternatives that can replicate its role in the electricity system.