Carbon Budget 6

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

On EV rollout, the noble Earl will be aware of what has been put in place for ending internal combustion engine use in vehicles and the phase-out of hybrid by 2035. The rollout of electric vehicles continues unabated, and the number of electric vehicle charging points in this country, currently at more than 80,000, is well on target for what we think necessary over the next period to ensure that the fleet works as well as it should.

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

Does the Minister accept that in the UKCS we have a far smaller carbon footprint for our own North Sea gas than the full life-cycle emissions of imported LNG from Qatar and the United States? Given that the Government’s energy security is challenged with growing dependency over the next 10 years on LNG ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, why are we the only country in the world that is failing to accelerate development of our own gas reserves, in the North Sea, for energy security and environmental objectives so that we can deliver firm and affordable power to all our high-energy-use industries, which currently face crushing energy costs, four times higher than in the United States?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord knows that, even if we were substantially to increase the footprint of gas production in the North Sea, that would not come on stream for many years. Secondly, gas is traded on international markets at a particular price, so it would make no difference to energy costs in the UK, because the gas would go to one of the three international gas markets and bringing down that price would be beyond the control of the UK—unless we introduced draconian measures to prevent the price discovery of the particular levels of gas being undertaken on international basis, which I am sure the noble Lord would not be happy with.