Monday 3 June 2019

Campaign reply - Onshore wind energy.


A number of constituents have written to me about onshore wind energy. Claire Perry Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Ministers has recently published a letter circulated to many MPs  on the government’s plans and progress made on clean energy production which I copy below in part as it points to the huge progress made by the UK in recent times. Whilst I note the concerns raised in the campaign email I am unable to verify all the statistics quoted.

It is worth noting that the UK makes up only 1% of the world’s carbon emissions so whilst I applaud the progress made it must fall on other major polluting nations to act as we have done. I will also raise various concerns with Claire Perry when I next see her:

As we have all seen this week, public concern about climate change is growing to unprecedented levels and regardless of views on the merits of school strikes and city protests, the voices being raised reflect the growing intensity and urgency of public debate on this issue.  

The threat of global warming has never been more apparent, as highlighted by the sobering conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPPC) special report on global warming of 1.5°C.  But, in parallel, we are also now witnessing an unstoppable momentum towards a more ambitious global response, most recently demonstrated by agreement on a ‘rulebook’ for the Paris Agreement at the most recent round of UN talks in Poland last year.

As I said in the House this week, I welcome this transition of the climate debate from niche to mainstream.


We should all be proud of the UK’s world-leading role in tackling climate change and the transition to Clean Growth. We were the first country to introduce legally binding long-term emissions targets under the landmark Climate Change Act in 2008 where we played an important role in offering committed cross-party support to pass the legislation.   The Act set in place binding carbon budgets that now commit us to a 57 percent reduction in emissions by 2032. Since 1990, we have now cut emissions by 42 per cent while growing the economy by over 72 per cent and an independent assessment by PWC shows that the UK has decarbonised its economy at the fastest rate of G20 countries since 2000 – we have cut our emissions per unit of national income on average by 3.7 per cent a year, well ahead of the EU average of 2.3 per cent and the G7 average of 2.2 per cent. The last time the UKs emissions were this low was in 1888! 


Our achievements in cutting emissions from our electricity generation particularly stand out.  More than half of the UK’s electricity was generated from low-carbon sources last year, the highest ever share, while we achieved a record 90 hours of continuous coal-free generation over the Easter weekend – when many of us were elected in 2010, coal based generation was over 30 per cent of the total.   Our renewable capacity has quadrupled since 2010 and the UK has the largest installed offshore wind capacity in the world thanks to our sustained investment in this crucial technology. The new Offshore Wind Sector Deal I launched in March, provides one of many examples of how the Government and industry will work in partnership to put the UK in the forefront of Clean Growth.

However, we recognise the need to go further to meet and exceed our current target of an at least 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.  The Clean Growth Strategy that I published in October 2017 (found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cleangrowth-strategy ) sets out our plans to build on our remarkable progress in the power sector while advancing decarbonisation across the whole of the economy, with ambitious proposals on housing, business, transport, and the natural environment. I believe it is the most comprehensive plan for whole economy decarbonisation published by any Government. 

We have continued to make excellent progress in recent months.  At the Spring Statement, many colleagues joined me in welcoming the Chancellor’s announcement of a Future Homes Standard which by 2025 will see new build homes future-proofed with low carbon heating and world leading levels of energy efficiency, along with new plans to increase the proportion of green gas used in the grid in a bid to drive down the carbon profile of the UK's gas heating network. 

Recognising the huge opportunities for the UK of the global shift to decarbonisation, we have placed Clean Growth at the heart of our Industrial Strategy and emphasised the crucial role of market mechanisms, targeted innovation investment, and industry challenges to drive progress further. Two ‘missions’ have already been announced under the Clean Growth Grand Challenge: to establish the world’s first net-zero carbon industrial cluster in the UK by 2040; and to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of our buildings, each supported by innovation funding under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. The low carbon sector already employs almost 400,000 people (directly and in its supply chains), is growing rapidly, and offers huge export opportunities for goods and services over the next decade. 

But we know, especially after the publication of the IPCC Report last year, that we have to be prepared to do more.  After assessing the sobering conclusions of this report, we were the first major industrialised nation to ask for advice on setting a ‘Net-Zero’ emissions target and our independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, will be giving us their view on May 2nd. We will consider their evidence-based advice carefully to determine what actions we need to take. 

However, climate change is too broad a challenge for this Government to tackle alone. This is a global problem to which the solution will be global commitment and I want to use the UK’s leadership and ambition to work with other countries around the world. We played an influential role in delivering the historic Paris Agreement in 2015 and only last year we helped create the first “rulebook” to bring the Paris Agreement to life at the latest round of UN talks in Poland.  We have used our progress in phasing out coal to set up and lead the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which now has over 80 members.  We are providing at least £5.8 billion in international climate finance from 2016 to 2020 to help developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change and as you may be aware, the UK has offered to host the 2020 UN climate change conference (COP26) and we are glad that this has received cross-party support.