Queen’s Speech — House of Lords, 2022-05-16
Topic: Energy
Questions: 2050—I am just 100 years out. Even if we get to that, a lot of countries in the world will not. Two things follow from that. The first is that climate change will not be significantly improved. We in this country produce 1% of the world’s emissions, so if we have all the struggles and make the vast expenditures but other countries do not, we will not have achieved anything so far as climate change is concerned Secondly, if we have spent an enormous amount of money improving our electricity and getting it all done, our electricity will almost certainly be more expensive than it is in other countries. There is a danger we have to watch, as the heavy industrial users of electricity will build their factories in other countries, not in those that have spent all that money on this. We have the time to deal with this, but we have to be very careful that that is not the end result of what we do.
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course there will be other increases in the likes of VAT and other taxes, which are estimated by the OBR. I will certainly speak to the Treasury and ask whether we can give my noble friend a more complete number. However, as I said, the Government keep all these taxes under review. We made it clear that companies must reinvest in the UK. In fact, Shell and BP are already investing hundreds of millions into our economy, including carbon capture infrastructure in the Humber and on Teesside. But it is not just about energy production. Many noble Lords, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones, Lady Parminter and Lady Hayman, the noble Lords, Lord Teverson and Lord Birt, and my noble friends Lord Bourne and Lord Moynihan, talked about the important subject of energy efficiency. Huge progress is already being made in the energy efficiency of UK homes. In 2008, 9% had an energy performance certificate, or EPC, of C or above; today, the figure is 46%. We are already investing more than £6.6 billion over this Parliament to improve energy efficiency, much of it targeted at the poorest in our society. This includes a £1.1 billion home upgrade grant and the energy company obligation scheme, which has been extended from 2022 to 2026, boosting its value from £640 million to £1 billion per year Furthermore, the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and my noble friend Lord Bourne rightly spoke about the importance of reducing energy demand. We are scaling up our consumer advice and information service to help households understand how to reduce their energy demand effectively and what longer-term actions they may need to take as part of the transition to net zero. Noble Lords also asked me about protecting those 4 million consumers on pre-payment meters. Not only were special measures put in place in March 2020 but customers are also protected by the price cap To move from the local to the global, my noble friend Lord Howell called on the country to stand up to OPEC. He will be pleased to know that we are in fact working with partners across the G7, the IEA, OPEC+ and other oil-producing countries to press for measures to stabilise oil prices, and with the IEA and our allies on strategic oil reserve releases. However, the current—