Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the membership is of the Net Zero Council; and what its objectives are for 2024.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I co-chair the Net Zero Council alongside The Co-operative Group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq. Members include some of the country’s leading businesses and finance firms. A full list is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/net-zero-council.
The Council’s key objectives are:
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many times has the Net Zero Council met since May 2023.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Net Zero Council has met four times since it was established in May 2023. Meetings were held in May 2023, July 2023, November 2023, and January 2024.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what her planned timetable is for publishing the Net Zero and Nature Workforce Action Plan.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government’s net zero and environmental goals depend on the UK having the right workforce, with the right skills and capacity in the right locations across the UK. To tackle emerging and future workforce demands across the economy, the Government convened the Green Jobs Delivery Group and is focused on the creation of a cross-Government Green Jobs Plan, for publication in the first half of 2024. The Green Jobs Plan will provide Government and industry actions needed to ensure we have a sufficiently skilled workforce to deliver on the Government’s net zero, nature and energy security targets.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many officials are working on the London Energy Security Conference; and what estimate she has made of the total time spent by officials preparing for the conference.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Four officials are working on conference planning, amongst other international energy priorities. As such, it is not possible to isolate the time spent on conference planning.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to Q234 of the oral evidence given by her Department's Deputy Director of International Net Zero: Green Finance and Capability to the Environmental Audit Committee on 18 May 2023, HC 308, when she plans to launch the consultation on voluntary carbon markets.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We intend to publish our consultation on voluntary carbon and nature markets in Q1 2024.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, which (a) Ministers and (b) trade envoys will attend COP28.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
My Rt hon Friends the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State will attend COP28, as well as Ministers from the following departments: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, HM Treasury, Department for Transport, and Department for Health and Social Care.
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys to Bangladesh and Japan are attending COP28 as part of the UK’s wider delegation of Climate Parliamentarians.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to attend meetings on the matter of methane reduction at COP28.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK is fully supportive of rapid national and global action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, as part of its commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Government put methane towards the top of the agenda at COP26, where the Global Methane Pledge was launched and the UK was one of the first countries to sign up. The Government welcomes the focus of COP28 on delivering action to reduce global methane emissions and will ensure the UK is represented at these discussions wherever possible, demonstrating its leadership and strong domestic track record.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of weighting net zero grants towards (a) levels of deprivation and (b) carbon emissions reduction potential.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government takes scheme design into careful consideration. All schemes are designed with reference to the Green Book. The Government takes its Public Sector Equality Duty requirements extremely seriously and has a range of grant schemes that support decarbonisation efforts for citizens across the country. This includes the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, and the £10m Community Energy Fund, which will enable both rural and urban communities across England to access grant funding to develop local renewable energy projects for investment.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of inflation rates on the ability of grants awarded to local authorities for net zero purposes to deliver intended outcomes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government monitors the impact of inflation to ensure that its legal commitments are met, while setting out a proportionate, pragmatic approach to delivering net zero that reduces the costs and burdens on British families. The cost effectiveness of all relevant schemes are monitored and scheme statistics are regularly published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress the Government is making on setting out sector-specific net zero transition plan guidance to support companies preparing their own transition plans.
Answered by Graham Stuart
During the UK's COP26 Presidency, the Government launched the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT). The TPT was tasked with developing guidance for good practice transition plans. Their disclosure framework was published in October, and they will consult on detailed sector guidance in November.
As part of implementing the Green Finance Strategy, the Government is planning to consult in due course on how the UK’s largest companies can effectively disclose their transition plans, if they have one.
Additionally, the Net Zero Council, which brings together CEOs from leading companies including Co-op, HSBC, Siemens and Cemex, has developed a framework to help businesses to create tailored sector decarbonisation roadmaps.