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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on CO2 emissions.

Covid-19 has had a significant short-term effect on emissions – for example, BEIS statistics estimate that road fuel sales between 23 March and 24 May were 43 per cent below the preceding eight weeks, and electricity consumption has also reduced. Renewables have regularly been providing more than 50% of our power. But the fundamental challenge of climate change has not changed – these reductions are likely to be short-term and the need to tackle climate change and reaching net zero remains as urgent as ever.

Many of the actions we need to take to meet our future carbon budgets can also support our recovery from Covid-19 – for example through the investments we committed to in the Budget to support carbon capture and storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, and low carbon heating.

We will be setting out further plans in key sectors such as transport, heat and buildings this year.