Written Question
Friday 28th February 2020
Asked by:
Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question
to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to review the compatibility of sections 41 and 42 of the Infrastructure Act 2015 with the Government’s target to meet net zero emissions by 2050.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Petroleum Act 1998 (as amended by the Infrastructure Act 2015, amongst others), places a duty on the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to produce and give effect to one or more strategies to enable the principal objective of maximising the economic recovery of petroleum from UK waters to be met. The OGA has announced that it will shortly be revising its strategy and will have regard to the need for the oil and gas sector to minimise its own carbon emissions and support the transition to Net Zero.
As we transition to a low carbon economy, there will continue to be a need for oil and gas, which are projected to provide around two-thirds of our total primary energy demand in 2035. All scenarios proposed by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) setting out how we could meet our 2050 emissions target include demand for natural gas.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 21 Jan 2020
Oral Answers to Questions
"16. Decarbonising transport will be crucial if we are to meet our net-zero targets, but the cost of electric vehicles remains high. What more can be done to ensure that that cost comes down and is within reach for the majority of people in our country?..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 15 Jan 2020
A Green Industrial Revolution
"My hon. Friend is making an excellent point, and he alights on the issue of changing our heating systems. Does he agree that we need to incentivise, within the tax structure, the building of ground-source heat pumps and air-source heat pumps to ensure that they can replace traditional fossil fuel …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Written Question
Thursday 17th October 2019
Asked by:
Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question
to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to reduce household carbon emissions through the use of hydrogen as a replacement for gas.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Burning natural gas for heating accounts for a significant proportion of household carbon emissions. There is currently no clear consensus on the best approach to decarbonising heat at scale, and our December 2018 report on Clean Growth: Transforming Heating set out that using hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas, including for domestic heating, may play an important role.
Further work is required to better understand the potential for using hydrogen to replace natural gas in parts of the gas grid. Several projects relevant to this are currently underway. These include projects run by gas network operators, and the £25m BEIS-funded Hy4Heat programme, which is investigating the feasibility of using hydrogen for heating in residential and commercial buildings.
The Government has committed to publishing a Heat Policy Roadmap in mid-2020, setting out the next steps on heat decarbonisation.
Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 08 Oct 2019
Government Plan for Net Zero Emissions
"I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) for her brilliant speech. I take pride in the fact that the United Kingdom is the first developed nation to commit to net zero emissions, and wherever we in this House sit on the political …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 26 Sep 2019
International Climate Action
"British carbon emissions are down by 42% on 1990 levels, which is a fantastic achievement, but we are responsible for just 1% of global emissions, and emissions overall are rising. What can the international community do to ensure that polluters such as India and China, which are responsible for nearly …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 24 Jun 2019
Climate Change
"Will my hon. Friend give way?..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 24 Jun 2019
Climate Change
"My hon. Friend has campaigned so vigorously on this issue. He is right to say that this is world-leading legislation and that the UK is taking the lead, but does he agree that China, whose carbon emissions are something like 25 times that of the UK, really needs to play …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 12 Jun 2019
Net Zero Emissions Target
"This is hugely welcome. A legal commitment to net zero will help to preserve our planet while encouraging the kind of tech and innovation that we can export around the world. It is hugely welcome in Cheltenham, too.
I congratulate the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State on their …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 04 Jun 2019
National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme
"Naming and shaming is one tool, but does the Minister agree that one of the most powerful tools to increase incomes is to reduce the amount of tax paid by people on low pay? Like me, does she take pride in the fact that instead of people having to pay …..."Alex Chalk - View Speech
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