PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Net Zero - 21 March 2023 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

At the spending review 2021, we confirmed that since March 2021 the Government will have committed a total £30 billion of public investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, the Government have made new announcements to provide long-term certainty on our investment plans, including £6 billion for energy efficiency from 2025 and up to £20 billion for carbon capture, usage and storage. The Government will set out further action shortly to support green industries in the UK and meet our net zero 2050 commitment.

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its report on the latest data, warning that the world is fast approaching irreversible levels of global heating. Why is the Treasury still giving energy companies an easy ride through lucrative loopholes in the energy windfall tax? The Treasury should be prioritising investments in renewables so that over time, our bills can come down.

This country should be proud of our record, which has seen emissions fall faster in this country than in any country in the G7—down 44% since 1990—but we have to balance that against energy security. Surely, if there is one thing we have learned from what has happened with Ukraine’s invasion by Russia, it is that we need to maximise domestic energy production. The investment allowance in our windfall tax is not a loophole; it is there precisely to incentivise investment so that we maximise domestic energy production.

While the sector would have liked more, I welcome the £20 billion over 20 years for carbon capture, use and storage in the Budget. Will the Minister now confirm that the Teesside-Humber project will go ahead and how additional clusters will be selected through the track-2 process?

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his consistency—he raised this with me on Thursday in my winding-up speech on the Budget debate. As I said then, we will announce further details soon, but I can confirm that I will be meeting the Carbon Capture and Storage Association tomorrow. I look forward to the meeting. This is an incredibly important step forward, because we must remember that carbon capture does not just give us clean energy, but enables heavy industry to decarbonise.

Why does the Chancellor not rewire local economies by taking inspiration from President Biden and backing Labour’s policy for a national wealth fund to support half a million new jobs this decade?

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the Inflation Reduction Act; I hope we all welcome what the United States is doing, because the climate is a global phenomenon and, if we are to make progress, we need the United States and other countries to do their bit. Let me be clear: we should be proud of our record to date and confident in our future, because we have huge competitive advantages on green industry. We have a brilliant record to date, we have the shallow North sea, where we have developed the biggest coastal array of offshore wind in the whole of Europe, we have a brilliant scientific base and, with the City of London and our financial institutions, we should be confident about our green future.

The Institute of Directors has warned that

“the UK will find itself left behind in the accelerating race to lead the green economy.”

After a lacklustre Budget, does the Minister agree?

To give just one example of why we should be confident, last year 40% of our electricity came from renewables. The figure in the United States was 20%. We have a very strong record, but we are going to keep building on it. That is why we announced the £20 billion for carbon capture and storage and why we announced Great British Nuclear, because we need that baseload power to go alongside renewables and give us energy security.

The truth is that it is under this Conservative Government that the greatest strides have been accomplished in harnessing the British economy to achieve net zero, with the leadership of COP26, the establishment of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and the introduction of corporate reporting on carbon emissions for our major corporations. Will my hon. Friend work with British business to continue that progress and ensure that we can all move forward successfully to achieve net zero?

My hon. Friend speaks with passion, experience and expertise, and he is absolutely right. Of course we work closely with investors and business—one key example is the contracts for difference regime. Last July, we had the largest ever allocation of contracts through the contracts for difference process, contracting about 11 GW of clean power, which is enough clean energy for 12 million homes. That is a huge step forward, and it shows that we are delivering on net zero. As a party, we will balance that with energy security so that we learn the lessons of the last 12 months.

Ynys Môn is known as energy island. It has wind, wave, tidal and solar, and will have, I hope, new nuclear at Wylfa. For more than three years, I have campaigned for Anglesey to be a freeport, which would turbocharge the island’s economy and help the Government to deliver net zero. We are due to hear from the Welsh Government and the UK Government by early spring on whether our island’s bid has been successful. It feels like early spring in my Holyhead garden. Does it feel like early spring in the Chancellor’s garden?

My hon. Friend’s constituency is an island, and she is its rock—there is no doubt about that; she champions these issues consistently. I am assured that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is giving careful consideration to her proposition, and that just underlines that she has been a champion for her constituency. By delivering on our green plans, we can generate green jobs and green investment in every part of the United Kingdom, including Wales.

I call the shadow Minister.

What the IOD actually said about the Budget was that it was “hugely encouraging”, and I strongly agree. We have an extraordinary track record—the fastest-falling emissions in the whole of the G7 and extraordinary success in offshore wind—but we want to go further. That is why we have announced £20 billion for carbon capture and storage, and we will soon announce many more positive measures.