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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2016 to Question 56871, what proportion of the UK's fossil reserves need to be left in the ground to prevent global temperature change above two degrees centigrade.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not made its own estimates of the proportion of UK fossil fuel reserves that need to be left in the ground to ensure that global warming is kept to within 2°C. However, even if the UK were to leave all of its fossil fuel reserves unused this would not necessarily limit temperatures to below 2°C, as this is a global issue that we need to collectively address.

As we move towards a low-carbon future following the path set by the Climate Change Act and the carbon budgets, it remains in all our interests that we utilise our home-grown oil and gas reserves as they are expected to be an important part of the energy mix for years to come.