Carbon Emissions

(asked on 3rd February 2021) - View Source

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 is taking to maximise existing (a) energy infrastructure and (b) expertise to help achieve the Government's ambition of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 11th February 2021

The public and private sectors must work in partnership to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The Department regularly engages with industry and advisors to maximise industry input and feedback to Government policy as we transition towards net zero by 2050.

This dialogue is maintained through a variety of forums: public consultations and calls for evidence, ongoing regular supplier and generator roundtables at both a ministerial and official level; official task forces and advisory bodies; and specific sector engagement to ensure that Government is fully informed of industry developments in key policy areas.

Last month, I led a series of roundtables with key stakeholder groups following the publication of the Energy White Paper. These were in addition to an ongoing dialogue with large, medium and small businesses to understand the unique challenges they face in relation to net zero.

Examples of more specific government-industry collaboration include the Hydrogen Advisory Council, a joint Government-Industry forum established to identify and promote concrete actions required to enable the supply of low carbon hydrogen at scale for use across the energy system. The Council will inform the development of a UK hydrogen strategy which we will bring forward in the first half of this year.

Our strategy will set out a comprehensive approach to building a UK hydrogen economy that is fit for purpose and pave the way towards achieving our ambition of 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 – working with industry partners to achieve this.

Hydrogen offers potential to repurpose the gas network to a low-carbon alternative, and we are working in partnership with industry to assess the feasibility and impacts of converting parts or the whole of the existing gas network to full hydrogen. This will test and evaluate the potential of hydrogen as an option for heating our homes and workplaces. We have set out a vision for a possible ‘hydrogen town’ before the end of the decade, building on a programme of community trials in the first half of the decade which we will support the gas industry to deliver. In parallel, we will also work with industry with the aim of completing the testing and safety case necessary to enable government and the regulator to amend regulations that could allow for up to 20% blending of hydrogen into the gas distribution grid by 2023.

We have also established the CCUS Council which advises on the deployment of carbon capture and storage, a technology which will be crucial to achieving our net zero targets and where the re use of oil and gas infrastructure can be a key enabler.

In addition, we are working closely with the oil and gas industry to negotiate a North Sea Transition Deal. Not only cutting emissions, but also enabling new industries such as CCUS and Hydrogen to develop, supporting supply chain transformation and capability development in new net zero sectors, and championing the sector’s workforce and importance to the net zero skills transition in industrial heartlands.

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