Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question
To ask the President of COP26, what recent discussions the Government has had with Chinese counterparts on he construction of new coal plants in preparation for COP26.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
We have made the global energy transition from coal to clean power a priority of our COP26 Presidency. I raised this issue most recently during my visit to China on 6 and 7 September with Vice Premier Han Zheng, Chinese Special Envoy for Climate Change Minister Xie Zhenhua and the Head of China’s National Energy Administration, Minister Zhang Jianhua. Additionally, the British Embassy in Beijing regularly engage with their Chinese counterparts on this issue. The Foreign Secretary has also discussed the importance of ambitious action to tackle climate change with his counterpart, State Councillor Wang Yi.
We will continue to engage with China to provide further details on how it will implement President Xi’s commitment at the US Leaders’ Summit on 22 April 2021 to reduce domestic coal consumption. Internationally, we are also working with China, as well as other financiers of international coal, through our COP26 energy transition campaign in collaborating to make renewables more attractive than coal power for all countries. Together with the G7, we have committed to rapidly accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity to an overwhelmingly decarbonised power system in the 2030s; and to end new direct government support for unabated international coal power generation by the end of 2021.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total carbon emissions associated with fossil fuel projects funded through (1) Official Development Assistance, and (2) UK Export Finance, in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, and (c) 2020.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
UK Export Finance (UKEF) defines fossil fuels projects as those related to the extraction, production, transportation and refining of crude oil, natural gas or coal and fossil-fuel fired power stations.
Until 31 March 2020 UKEF’s collected projected annual operational CO2-equivalent (CO2e) Scope 1 and Scope 2* emissions of projects only where they fell under the scope of the OECD Council Recommendation on Common Approaches for Officially Supported Export Credits and Environmental and Social Due Diligence (OECD Common Approaches) or the Equator Principles and where they were expected to exceed 25 000 tonnes CO2e annually. The table below is compiled on that basis and uses the latest emissions data known to UKEF for the total carbon emissions associated with fossil fuel projects funded through UKEF in 2018, 2019 and 2020:
(*Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy.)
Projects currently in operations phase (operational carbon emissions)
Financial Year UKEF funding agreed (signed) | UKEF support effective (funding provided) | Estimated carbon emissions in tonnes of CO2e per annum |
2018 | Yes | 18,030,000 |
2020 | No | 26,804,725 |
Estimated emissions for projects supported but not yet in operation (still in construction phase, hence no actual operational carbon emissions to date)
Financial Year UKEF funding agreed (signed) | UKEF support effective (funding provided) | Estimated carbon emissions in tonnes of CO2e per annum during future operations |
2018 | Yes | 15,257,820 |
2019 | Yes | 8,178,670 |
2020 | No | 3,600,000 |
With regards to the period from 1 April 2020, emissions information has not yet been collated within UKEF, but UKEF will make climate-related financial disclosures in its
accounts, in line with the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD’s) recommendations, as soon as practicable following the close of the 2020/21 financial year. For 2020-21 this disclosure will include the type of emissions data described above and in addition will include information on UKEF's governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets regarding climate change financial risks.
We do not hold data for estimated carbon emissions associated with past fossil fuel projects funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make representations to the National Infrastructure Commission on assessing the potential merits of building ultra-super critical coal-fired power stations in the UK.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) will have a mandate to examine all sectors of economic infrastructure, including energy. The NIC will shortly undertake work on a National Infrastructure Assessment, which will set out the UK’s infrastructure needs for the next 10-30 years.
Coal fired power stations without abatement are not consistent with meeting our decarbonisation objectives. This is why the Government has committed to consulting on phasing out unabated coal by 2025 and to restricting the amount of coal generation in 2023.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information her Department holds on the number of ultra-super critical coal-fired power stations in other countries that are (a) generating electricity and (b) under construction.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information her Department holds on the number of coal-fired powered stations which have been built in Germany since 2010; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissioned an independent study[1] published in April 2013 looking at new coal-fired power stations in Germany. This study found 10 coal plants (a total of 8GW) were under construction at the time and would be ready to be commissioned by 2015.
Asked by: Lord Stoddart of Swindon (Independent Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of coal-fired power stations under construction worldwide, the number that are planned for the future, and what effect those new stations will have on the total tonnage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The IEA estimate that global coal electricity capacity will be around 8-17% higher in 2020 than 2013, with some growth even under the IEA’s estimate of a 2°C scenario.
We know that limiting the global growth in unabated coal use is necessary to tackle climate change. The UK Government announced at COP19, in Warsaw in 2013, its plans to end support for public financing of new coal-fired power plants overseas, except in rare circumstances. In order to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees, globally we need to rapidly move away from unabated coal power generation.
We have negotiated a new policy in November 2015 on how OECD export credit agencies can contribute to our goal to address climate change. The new policy places significant restrictions on the financing of coal-fired power plants by OECD export credit agencies. Support for the larger less-efficient coal-fired power plants is removed, and will encourage a move away from low-efficient towards high-efficient coal-fired power plants. Over two-thirds of the coal-fired power projects receiving official export credit support from Participants between 2003 and 2013 would not have been eligible for such support under the new rules. The new rules will take effect from 1 January 2017, and are subject to a mandatory review starting in 2019, with the goal of strengthening them.
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State recently announced that we will consult next year on an end date for coal of 2025 and limiting its use by 2023.
Asked by: Stephen O'Brien (Conservative - Eddisbury)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer for 4 March 2014, Official Report, column 765W, on carbon emissions, to which other technologies that Answer refers to; and whether this would still be the case if the carbon footprint of backup technologies was factored in.
Answered by Lord Barker of Battle
Onshore wind power has a very small carbon footprint range relative to other energy generation technologies, including coal and gas-fired generation, which, in 2012, emitted, on average, 895 g/kWh and 415 g/kWh respectively (not allowing for emissions incurred during the manufacture, construction and decommissioning phases)1.
The Department does not estimate the gas turbine energy contribution (and therefore related CO2 emissions) associated with the reserve generation needed to manage wind variability specifically, due to complex inter-dependencies of the power system operational parameters. However, the need for reserve generation to manage intermittent supply and demand of electricity does not change the fact that any electricity generated by onshore wind – which in the first quarter of 2014 accounted for around 7% of all electricity generated in the UK – has a carbon footprint of just 8 and 20g CO2eq/kWh. Reserve generation displaces the output of existing generating stations to maintain the balance of supply and demand, so there is no net increase of power on the system at any one time; therefore the only additional emissions from reserve associated with wind power is through the inefficiency of running separate generating stations at part load rather than fewer stations at full-load, which is relatively insignificant compared to the carbon savings made.
[1]Coal and Gas emissions factors from table DUKES 5C, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electricity-chapter-5-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes