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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of local renewable energy supply in (1) achieving net zero carbon emission targets, and (2) reducing emissions of CO2.

Renewable electricity generation has more than quadrupled since 2010 and low carbon electricity now gives us over 50 percent of our total. We have the world’s largest offshore wind capacity (a third of the global total) and auction prices for future offshore wind projects fell by two-thirds between the 2015 and 2019 Contracts for Difference auctions.

We are working to deliver an ambitious Energy White Paper that addresses the transformation of the energy system consistent with delivering our net zero target.

Small-scale low-carbon electricity generation is supported by the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), which came into force on 1 January 2020. The SEG gives small generators, such as homes with solar panels, the right to be paid for the renewable electricity they export to the grid. It reflects our continued commitment to ensuring that low carbon electricity is?central to the?transition to?the?smart?and flexible?energy systems of the future.

We are continuing to offer support to communities who want to generate energy locally through the Rural Community Energy Fund.?RCEF provides funding to rural communities for feasibility studies and pre-development of renewable energy projects.

In addition, the Government supports the deployment of low carbon heat through a number of different mechanisms, including through local heat networks which will play an important part in meeting our net zero targets.

Provisional BEIS estimates suggest that overall emissions fell by 14.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) (3.9 per cent) to 351.5 MtCO2 between 2018 and 2019, driven mainly by the changes in the fuel mix used for electricity generation (as published in March 2020).