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.
