New Age Exploration: Fossil Fuels

(asked on 4th November 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 assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the Lochinvar fossil fuel development proposed by New Age Exploration on the UK’s target to achieve net zero by 2050.


Answered by
Greg Hands Portrait
Greg Hands
Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This question was answered on 15th November 2021

Our Net Zero Strategy makes it clear that coal has no part to play in our future power generation which is why we’re phasing it out of our electricity generation by 2024 – a year earlier than planned. Coal’s share of our electricity supply has already declined significantly in recent years – from almost 40% in 2012 to less than 2% in 2020.

Coal mining in the UK has been in long term decline reflecting falling domestic demand and there are only a handful of operational mines remaining in the UK. We expect further closures in the next couple of years as these mines naturally complete coaling.

The potential fossil fuel development at Lochinvar would require planning permission and other relevant permissions from all the relevant territories before it could progress.

Reticulating Splines