Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the sufficiency of the Government's investment in hydrogen for the UK to become a world-leader in that field.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has set out a clear plan to decarbonise our power grid and will continue to build a robust domestic renewable energy sector so that the UK is not as exposed to global trends in natural gas supply and demand.
Competition is the most effective and sustainable way to keep prices low for all consumers. Throughout the transition to net zero, consumers should pay a fair, affordable price for their energy. As the net zero strategy sets out, this will be a key aim when making reforms to the energy retail market.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
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 plans to take to help ensure (a) stable and (b) affordable energy prices over future years.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has set out a clear plan to decarbonise our power grid and will continue to build a robust domestic renewable energy sector so that the UK is not as exposed to global trends in natural gas supply and demand.
Competition is the most effective and sustainable way to keep prices low for all consumers. Throughout the transition to net zero, consumers should pay a fair, affordable price for their energy. As the net zero strategy sets out, this will be a key aim when making reforms to the energy retail market.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs that will be affected by the transition to net zero; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that affected staff are (a) supported into new green jobs and (b) offered opportunities to retrain in green industries.
Answered by Greg Hands
Through our Net Zero Strategy we will grow green industries and supply chains in the UK, supporting up to 440,000 jobs across net zero industries in 2030. The Strategy sets out how we are supporting skills and retraining for the green economy, including reforming the skills system; delivering green Skills Bootcamps; and working with industry to support green apprenticeships.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the Government’s new oil and gas developments on the Government's goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Answered by Greg Hands
All scenarios proposed by the Climate Change Committee setting out how the Government could meet its 2050 net zero emissions target include continuing demand for oil and natural gas.
Even with continued new development, the UK is expected to consume more oil and gas than it produces in the coming decades. This is because production from the UK Continental Shelf is declining rapidly as the basin matures. Existing licensed but undeveloped oil and gas assets are already factored into the Government’s projections for future production, as well as associated emissions.
The Oil and Gas Authority’s (OGA’s) new strategy, which came into force in February 2021, integrates net zero considerations into the development consent process. This strategy provided the OGA with tools they can use to help ensure that new developments are designed and operated as cleanly as possible, in line with the Government’s net zero obligation.
Looking forward, the Government will introduce a climate compatibility checkpoint which will be used to assess whether any future licensing rounds remain in keeping with the Government’s climate goals.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure British homes are insulated in response to recent rises in energy prices.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out the actions we will be taking to reduce emissions from buildings in the near term, including £3.9 billion of new funding.
Part of this new funding has been allocated to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund which will upgrade a significant amount of the social housing stock currently below EPC C up to that standard. This will include improvements to insulation.
This funding will also support the Home Upgrade Grant which will provide grants to up to 100,000 low-income households to upgrade the energy performance of the worst quality, off gas grid homes in England. This will typically include insulation measures to make the home heat efficient and suitable for the future as we build towards net zero.
In addition, The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme which commenced in 2013, which is an obligation that the Government has placed on larger energy suppliers to install energy efficiency and heating measures to low income and vulnerable households across GB and has delivered around 3.29m measures in 2.31m homes, up to the end of July 2021.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of the production of hydrogen on CO2 levels.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government's Net Zero Strategy sets out how low carbon hydrogen will be an essential part of our future energy mix. We are currently consulting on a new UK standard for low carbon hydrogen, which will ensure any hydrogen production we support provides genuine carbon savings. As part of this we have published a comprehensive assessment on the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of different production methods.
The UK Hydrogen Strategy indicates that use of 5 GW low carbon hydrogen could deliver total emissions savings of 41 MtCO2e between 2023 and 2032, the equivalent of the carbon captured by 700 million trees over the same period.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing low-income households with subsidised heat pumps in order to (a) protect poorer households in the run up to winter and (b) kickstart the low-carbon heating market.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government has published its comprehensive Heat and Buildings Strategy, with major new plans to lower the cost of low-carbon heating technology, like heat pumps, to ensure they are no more expensive to buy and run than fossil-fuel boilers. The strategy aims to promote growth and levelling up through supporting 175,000 green skilled jobs by 2030 and 240,000 by 2035.
New grants of £5,000 will be available from April next year to encourage homeowners to install more efficient, low-carbon heating systems – like heat pumps – through a £450 million three-year Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant, Energy Company Obligation and Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery schemes all support the installation of heat pumps for social housing tenants and lower-income homeowners and private tenants. These schemes also support other energy-efficiency measures such as insulation and heating controls to ensure homes are easier to heat and waste less energy.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what contingency planning his Department is undertaking to help ensure that vulnerable people are not left without heating in the event of energy shortages in winter 2021, with particular reference to the elderly and disabled people.
Answered by Greg Hands
We remain confident that gas and electricity security of supply can be maintained under a wide range of scenarios.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help ensure that low income households are able to heat their homes following recent rises in energy prices.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Government is committed to ensuring fair energy prices for consumers. That is why Government introduced the energy price cap in 2019, which saves 15 million households on default tariffs up to £100 a year on average.
The Government’s Warm Home Discount provides over 2 million eligible households with £140 off their bills. In addition, Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments will help ensure those most vulnerable are better able to heat their homes over the colder months.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the feasibility that UK reaches net zero emissions sooner than 2050.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The UK was the first major economy to legislate for a net zero target. This target was set in line with advice from our independent expert advisers, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), that 2050 was the earliest feasible date for achieving this. The CCC made clear in their advice on the 6th Carbon Budget, published in December 2020, that net zero in 2050 remains the right target for the UK.