Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Johnson of Marylebone Excerpts

Tuesday 12th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Joan Ryan (Enfield North) (Lab)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the UK’s progress towards meeting its carbon reduction targets.

[The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)]

The UK was the first country to introduce legally binding emissions reduction targets through the Climate Change Act 2008. We have made excellent progress towards meeting our targets: we met our first carbon budget and are on track to exceed the second and third.

[Joan Ryan]

Does the Minister agree that the clean growth plan will not meet the fifth carbon budget on its own? Does he therefore agree that the plan is wholly inadequate and that, as the Committee on Climate Change has said, it should not be the plan?

[Joseph Johnson]

The clean growth plan has been broadly and warmly welcomed. Low-carbon innovation is at the very heart of our approach to our industrial strategy, with more than £2.5 billion of Government investment from 2015 to 2021.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

The Labour manifesto in the summer committed to 60% of our heat and power being produced from zero-carbon or renewable energies. When will the Government match that ambition from the Opposition?

[Joseph Johnson]

Our clean growth strategy is rightly ambitious, and the Climate Change Act allows us to be flexible in our means of achieving the goals that we have set out. As I have just said, we are ahead of our targets on the second and third carbon budgets.

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

In the recent Budget the Treasury, I assume following consultation with the Minister’s Department, pulled the plug on all future support for renewable energy deployment except for the already allocated near-term support for offshore wind. Does the Minister himself support such action, and does it help or hinder the UK’s progress towards meeting its carbon reduction targets?

[Joseph Johnson]

As I have said, our position is that we have met our first carbon target, and we are on track to exceed the second and third. The Government are taking this agenda exceptionally seriously. In fact we are leading the world on it, having legislated with the Climate Change Act and put clean growth at the very heart of this country’s industrial strategy.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

14. What assessment he has made of the potential effect on Wales of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

T4. Recent Government figures show that UK funding from Horizon 2020 dropped significantly last year. Will the Secretary of State tell us what he is going to do to address that alarming fall in funding, and will he commit to participating in Horizon 2020 beyond March 2019 should the UK leave the EU then?

[The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)]

UK participation in Horizon 2020 has held up remarkably well since June 2016. We remain one of the strongest performers across the EU system. As the hon. Lady will have seen, last Friday’s joint report between the Commission and the UK Government painted a very positive outlook for our continued participation in this valuable programme.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

T2. Given the importance of the automotive industry to the UK, and particularly to the west midlands, does the Secretary of State agree that it is essential to invest in test environments for self-driving cars to ensure that the UK can compete with other countries that want to become the world’s test bed for new vehicle technologies?

--- Later in debate ---

[Joseph Johnson]

Yes, indeed. Cambridge is leading the way in this respect, as in many others. We want to see more collaboration between our universities and the world of business to drive commercialisation and to make the most of the R and D we are investing in.

[Sir Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

It is good news that the Prime Minister is attending President Macron’s summit on climate change in Paris today, but may I warn the Secretary of State that President Macron is positioning Paris as the world’s leader in green finance? To tackle that threat and to protect London, Ministers must back the Bank of England’s taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures and bring in new mandatory corporate requirements on fossil fuel assets.