Asked by Lord Rooker To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps
they are taking to implement the recommendations in the
International Energy Agency report, Playing my part: How to save
money, reduce reliance on Russian energy, support Ukraine and help
the planet, published on 21 April. The Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy (Lord Callanan) (Con) My Lords, we are working
closely with the US, the EU and...Request free trial
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
implement the recommendations in the International Energy Agency
report, Playing my part: How to save money, reduce reliance on
Russian energy, support Ukraine and help the planet, published on
21 April.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy () (Con)
My Lords, we are working closely with the US, the EU and other
partners to end dependence on Russian oil and gas in response to
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, recognising the different
circumstances and transition timelines. The net-zero strategy is
the Government’s plan to achieve a green, sustainable future,
including how we will support the public to play their part in
this transition. We note the report’s recommendations and will
continue to consider further steps to support the public.
(Lab)
My Lords, the UK is a member of the International Energy Agency,
and I expected a more positive view. I fully accept that it is
the Government’s role to take the national and the global view,
but people want to be able to play their part and feel that they
are contributing, above donations and above helping refugees. The
nine points in the plan are voluntary except for one: speed
limits. We could save an enormous amount of energy if we reduced
the speed limit to 60 miles per hour, as we did during the
three-day week. It is not a massive inconvenience for people and
it saves a lot of energy. While I am uncomfortable talking about
boiler temperatures when millions of people in Ukraine are living
below ground at the present time, the estimate is that this plan
could save 220 million barrels of oil and 17 billion cubic metres
of gas. It is worth a real push by the Government to get people
to play their part.
(Con)
I do not disagree with the noble Lord. We are encouraging people
to play their part and, of course, we encourage people to drive
as slowly as possible and responsibly. We encourage people to
turn down the temperature of their boiler if this can be achieved
while still heating their home properly and providing the
appropriate levels of comfort. Of course we will support people
to make responsible choices.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare an interest in energy matters, as set out in
the register, and a long time ago I was a rotating chairman of
the International Energy Agency. The noble Lord, , is quite right that increased
efficiency and reduced oil intensity are ways to reduce the
growth of demand and renounce Russian exports. However, is not
the best way, in the very short term, to get the OPEC producers
of oil and gas to increase their supply, which they can easily
do, and bring down petrol and gas prices very quickly, which that
would do? As OPEC has broken with the IEA recently, should we not
be pressing that issue much more directly with our so-called
friends in the Gulf?
(Con)
My noble friend makes an important point. As well as encouraging
OPEC to increase production, we are trying to increase production
from our own domestic sources and ensure that there is increased
investment in our own resources in the North Sea.
(LD)
My Lords, has the Minister had a chance to read the excellent
blog on this subject by the former clerk to the Lords Science and
Technology Committee, Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin, which reminds us
that, in 2012, 2.3 million insulation measures were installed in
the UK before policy changes reduced that to an average now of
10% of the peak? Does he therefore agree that the quickest way to
restore these levels would be immediately to appoint Liberal
Ministers back to government, given that this was during the
coalition? Failing that, will he consider which of the policies
in place at that time could be adopted now to speed up building
insulation, which I know he is as keen to do as the rest of
us?
(Con)
The noble Lord will forgive me if I do not accept at least one of
his policy recommendations. For that to happen, the Liberal
Democrats would need to win an election, which is vanishingly
unlikely in the current circumstances.
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Con)
However, the noble Lord knows well my support for insulation
measures. Insulation—energy that we do not use—is the most
efficient form of energy. We are rolling out a considerable
number of measures. He will aware that, under ECO4, we are
introducing support of up to £1 billion a year, as well as the
social housing decarbonisation fund, the local authority delivery
fund, the home upgrade grant, et cetera—all of which are rolling
out insulation measures for the poorest members of our
community.
(CB)
My Lords, we are fortunate in the UK that our dependence on
Russia for energy has been diminished thanks to successive
policies to support renewable electricity, but is the Minister
aware that just less than one in five litres of diesel comes
directly from Russia? What plans does the noble Lord’s ministry
have to speed the transition from diesel to electric vehicles,
which will save drivers money, increase our energy independence
and clean our air?
(Con)
We are seeking to end imports of Russian oil by the end of this
year. We already have one of the fastest transition periods to
electric vehicles in the western world; we will ban the sale of
petrol and diesel cars by 2030. We are already rolling out more
efficient vehicles, although we should be aware of the cost of
these to many families at the moment.
(Lab)
My Lords, the International Energy Agency report contains useful
recommendations for citizens to use energy more efficiently and
highlights the many benefits of doing so, but the Government do
not seem to be leading by example. Why did the energy security
strategy fail to deliver in this area and what steps will the
Government take to ensure that sensible personal decisions are
backed by them?
(Con)
Of course, it was regrettable that we did not manage to include
some more insulation measures within the energy security
strategy, but the Government always back people to take
responsible decisions, as I mentioned in my Answer to the noble
Lord, . We want to support people to
make responsible choices, whether in heating their home, in
travelling or in their personal circumstances.
(Con)
My Lords, surely it is time to develop fracking in the UK.
(Con)
The House has debated this subject on many occasions, and we will
continue to be led by the science. My noble friend will be aware
that the Secretary of State recently commissioned the British
Geological Survey to have another look at the scientific evidence
for fracking, but we cannot ignore the problems that were caused
by the Cuadrilla test wells. If those objections can be overcome
and we can gain the support of local communities, there is no
reason why we cannot do it, but let us not think that this will
be a short-term answer to our problems.
(GP)
My Lords, speaking of responsible decisions, the last three words
of the title of the International Energy Agency’s report are
“help the planet”, yet the Government are currently subsidising
polluting companies—for example, Drax—to the cost of £2 million a
day. Will the Minister take that back to his department and
explain that biofuel companies such as Drax do not produce
renewable energy?
(Con)
To respond to that point would take longer than I have for this
answer, but I disagree with the noble Baroness—although I have
great respect for her—that biomass is not renewable. This has
been studied at great length, and supporting Drax and other power
stations to move to renewable sources of power with waste wood is
an environmentally responsible thing to do, in our view. The
energy pathway for that is audited.
(LD)
My Lords, in response to my Written Question of 24 March about
government plans to encourage people to turn their thermostats
down, the Minister referred me to the Met Office’s WeatherReady
campaign. This turns out to be a web page to help people prepare
for severe-weather measures, such as putting on sunscreen and
drinking more fluids. Therefore, let me put the question a
different way: when will the Government launch a full-throttled
campaign asking the British public to turn down either the
heating or the air conditioning? This will save money, end once
and for all our import of Russian gas, show support for Ukraine
and reduce greenhouse gases—everything the Government say they
want to achieve.
(Con)
There are, of course, very few people in this country who benefit
from air conditioning; rather, it is heating that is the issue.
Nothing will drive people to turn down their heating at the
moment more than the current high gas prices. I am not sure that
we need much of a government information campaign to encourage
people to save money where they can, but we do not want it to be
at the expense of people living in cold homes.
(Con)
My Lords, I echo the tributes paid to the amazing career of
, whom I remember so well in a
previous commodity crisis as an interlocutor with the then
Agriculture Minister, John Silkin. He was very effective. Given
the somewhat limited scope of the IEA-promoted self-help that we
have seen in this report, can the Minister remind us of what the
Government are doing to insulate consumers, the elderly and
struggling small businesses from the mushrooming of energy prices
that we have seen?
(Con)
Indeed, I would be happy to help my noble friend and build on the
answer I gave to the noble Lord, , earlier. We are spending from
£750 million up to £1 billion a year on ECO 4. We are spending
£6.6 billion over this Parliament on all the different insulation
and energy-efficiency schemes that I mentioned earlier,
delivering practical measures in hundreds of thousands of homes
up and down the country. These very successful schemes are
driving up the energy efficiency of the poorest households in the
country. They are excellent schemes and worthy of the House’s
full support.
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