Climate Change

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts
Monday 14th December 2020

(3 years, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Sheehan Portrait Baroness Sheehan (LD)
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My Lords, I welcome the fact that the Government are ending support for fossil-fuel projects in developing countries, but here at home the Oil and Gas Authority’s remit remains to extract every last drop through its “maximising economic revenue” policy. Does the Minister agree that this is incompatible with the Climate Change Act and our leadership of COP 26 next year? Will he and the Government support my Private Member’s Bill, the Petroleum (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to rectify this?

Lord Callanan Portrait Lord Callanan (Con)
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No, I do not agree with the noble Baroness. The oil and gas industry employs tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. It recognises the challenge, and the Government need to work with that to help it in the transition.