Michael Shanks MP: Climate-Related Speeches In Parliament

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Michael Shanks's Speeches In Parliament Related to Climate

We've found 5 Parliamentary debates in which Michael Shanks has spoken about climate-related matters.

Here are the relevant sections of their speeches.

• 5 Sep 2024: Great British Energy Bill

  16:50

  May I begin by thanking right hon. and hon. Members who have participated in this extremely wide-ranging debate this afternoon? I particularly pay tribute to all Members across the House who made their maiden speech in this debate. Thankfully, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) has already run through all the constituency names, so I do not need to do that again. However, I do want to highlight specifically some of the really emotional contributions that we heard from hon. Members, particularly my hon. Friends the Members for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) and for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran) and the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis), who spoke so passionately, as many did, about their pride in their communities and the importance of this moment and this decisive decade in tackling irreversible climate change. There will come a point in this Parliament when we will not have debates that are dominated by maiden speeches, and I will really regret that, because every time I sit here I learn a lot more about the country in which we live. I thank all those Members for sharing their communities with us this afternoon.

  This has been a thorough and interesting discussion about the principles behind this Bill and the establishment of Great British Energy. The UK faces immense challenges, from energy insecurity and our over-reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets to the cost of living crisis and climate crisis. This Government are determined to address those challenges with clean energy being a key part of the solution.

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• 2 Sep 2024: Energy Infrastructure Planning Projects

  The Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my noble Friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath OBE, made the following statement today:

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• 2 Sep 2024: Publication of Statutory Consultation and National Energy System Operator Licences Jointly With Ofge...

  Our nation stands at a pivotal moment in our energy and net zero journey. As we navigate the challenges of energy security and the urgent need for a sustainable future, I am proud to announce the publication of the joint Government-Ofgem response to the statutory consultation on national energy system operator licences and other impacted licences.

  As we move forward, NESO’s role will be instrumental in achieving our net zero and energy security goals. By fostering innovation, enhancing system resilience, and promoting transparency, NESO will help navigate the complexities of our evolving energy system. We are enormously grateful for the valuable input from industry stakeholders, whose insights have been integral to shaping the future of NESO.

  NESO will be regulated by Ofgem through two new licences, and this consultation response marks a significant milestone in establishing NESO’s regulatory regime. The final step will be for the Secretary of State to grant NESO these licences under the powers conferred by the Energy Act 2023. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Ofgem are aiming to establish NESO this year.

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• 26 Jul 2024: Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

  10:27

  Fourthly, there is the challenge posed by the climate crisis, which grows more and more urgent every day. We are now halfway through the most decisive decade in preventing irreversible damage to our planet. This is our last chance to limit global warming to 1.5° and, frankly, we are way off track.

  This Government are determined to address these challenges, but, unlike our predecessors, we do not see them as separate issues pulling us in different directions —a case of either green or growth. Each of these challenges points to the same solution, a green energy future, because investing in clean energy at speed and scale is the only way to deliver energy security and to save families from future energy shocks. It will also create tens of thousands of good, skilled jobs.

  The hon. Gentleman mentions families and energy prices. During the general election campaign, the Labour party and Labour candidates across the country claimed that GB Energy will save the average British household £300 a year. However, the Secretary of State refused to repeat this claim when given the chance last week. There has been quite a lot of confusion in the national media over the past couple of days, with Downing Street saying one thing and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero saying another. Can the Minister now confirm, on the parliamentary record, how much GB Energy will save or cost British bill payers by the time of the next election? He is absolutely right that all these things are part of Labour’s energy plan for the country, so we need to know how much it will cost or save British taxpayers.

  We will create thousands of skilled jobs, which, crucially, will also tackle the climate crisis that we have not done enough to tackle in recent years. It is for these reasons that the Prime Minister has made making Britain a clean energy superpower one of his five missions. The Government have a clear long-term plan to deliver that mission by increasing our energy independence, protecting consumers, and delivering good jobs and climate leadership. The outcome of that plan will be the decarbonisation of our power supply by 2030 and an acceleration to net zero across our economy.

  The Minister has referred continually to the role of GB Energy, but how will it deliver lower gas prices? Only yesterday one of his colleagues, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, admitted that the price of gas was determined on the international market.

  Does the Minister agree that the energy crisis is a matter not just of supply but of demand, and that the cheapest bill is the one that does not have to be paid because the energy is not being used? Does he intend to announce today ways of tackling the demand side? We could, for example, ensure that all new buildings are built to net zero standards, and announce a timeline for getting to that point as soon as possible. We could also announce a nationwide, street-by-street insulation programme to tackle the need for energy efficiency; that is the cheapest and quickest way to address the energy crisis. If he is not going to make those announcements today, when will they be made?

  Finally on GB Energy, as a Scottish MP it would be wrong of me not to say that I am incredibly proud that Great British Energy will be headquartered in Scotland. It is a signal of our commitment to delivering the good jobs that communities need, and to bringing the expertise and skills of Scotland’s growing renewables sector to the table as we drive forward towards even more ambitious plans across the whole country. In the driving seat of these ambitions is our new mission control centre, led by the former chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark. Mission control is about bringing together the best minds across Whitehall, but also, crucially, outside of Whitehall, so that we can set the direction, monitor progress and remove all the barriers in the way, whether they relate to the planning grid, supply chains or skills, so that the Government can work with one voice to deliver this plan.

  On barriers, one of the key challenges is the capacity of our construction industry. Is my hon. Friend having conversations across Government about how we resolve that issue, so that we can deliver on this crucial agenda of moving towards net zero?

  My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. This transition has to be hand in hand with the industrial strategy that the Government are driving forward. That is why the Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon West (Sarah Jones) is also a Business and Trade Minister; that will bring together work right across Government on the industrial strategy. We also have to look at the skills for the future, and developing the next generation of apprentices and skilled workers, who will be in jobs that will be with us long into the future.

  There has been much debate about the role the North sea will play and what a just transition will look like. The reality, as I mentioned earlier, is that the North sea is a mature basin with declining reserves. Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that the number of direct jobs supported by the oil and gas industry has already fallen by more than a third since 2014.

  Regarding the potential closure of the Grangemouth refinery, the Just Transition Commission recently said that the UK Government have taken positive steps in working collaboratively with the Scottish Government. There is no doubt that we are behind schedule because of the previous Government’s inaction. Will my hon. Friend provide an update on when the Grangemouth future industry board leadership forum will next meet?

  The future of the North sea more generally depends on having a plan for the industries of the future, whether that is carbon capture and storage, hydrogen or, indeed, renewables. The just transition is critical and it is something I take incredibly seriously, so we will work with North sea communities to develop a credible long-term plan. That work will be supported by a British jobs bonus to incentivise developers to build their supply chains here in the UK and to create good jobs in our industrial heartlands and coastal communities. We will make sure that our offshore workers are the people who decarbonise our country and deliver our energy independence, and that there is a strong, resilient workforce in the North sea for decades to come.

  My hon. Friend, very importantly, mentioned the role that carbon capture, usage and storage has to play in the decarbonisation of our economy. I am sure he will have seen the latest National Audit Office report on CCUS and will therefore be aware that the Department has increased its reliance on CCUS substantially since this was first mooted. The NAO is clear in its report that uncertainty remains about the funding available for future stages of the CCUS project proposals; that the previous Government were behind in agreeing support for track 1; and that future progress on the programme is dependent on reaching financial investment decisions for at least some of the track 1 projects very swiftly. Will he give us an update—if not now, at some point later—on how this essential part of the programme will be handled?

  I very much welcome much of what the Minister has said in this announcement, including on the need for a just transition for those working in the oil and gas sector. However, before the election, the Government made a commitment to end new oil and gas licences, although they are still planning to allow the new Rosebank oil field to open, despite it being connected to a level of carbon emissions that we simply cannot allow in this country. I have two questions about the future of oil and gas. First, will the Minister confirm how and when the ending of new oil and gas licences will happen? Secondly, will the Government reconsider the opening of the disastrous Rosebank oil and gas field?

  On the question of Rosebank and some of those other fields, we have said that we will not bring to an end any of the licences that are currently in place. I cannot speak on some of the particular issues, because there are, of course, cases before the courts, but we will come back to the House in due course to set out the detail. What is important is that we have said that we do not want any new licences in the North sea and we stand by that commitment. We now want to work out a detailed plan, so that that just transition, to which the hon. Lady rightly referred, can come into effect.

  Finally, the next 18 months in the run-up to COP30 are critical to ramping up and delivering on our global climate commitments. Britain must and will regain its influence on the international stage, so we will work with international partners to raise ambitions, including by leading a clean power alliance that brings together a coalition of countries to accelerate the clean energy transition.

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  14:17

  With the leave of the House, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will respond to what has been a very wide-ranging and—until that last speech—a mostly positive debate. I thank all those who have contributed and have brought us their ideas and their huge experience, not just in relation to the green energy transition but in relation to everything from the care system and child poverty to vital matters of public discourse such as what we should put on our chips. That was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), and, for the record, what she said was absolutely right.

  The reason that we are on this journey is not because of some sort of ideological commitment to net zero, but because we know that it is the only way to deliver the energy security that we need to reduce our dependence on volatile gas prices and to deliver the cheaper energy that we know will bring down bills. The commitment that we made throughout the election has not changed in the slightest. We will bring down people’s bills in the long term to avoid those shocks that have cost people so much in their household bills.

  On the oil and gas transition, the hon. Members for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross) and for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan), who are perhaps not surprisingly on the same side in criticising this Government, made a number of points about the North Sea, which are important and which I take on board very seriously. None the less, the suggestion that the North sea is going to close overnight is nonsense and it has to stop being peddled by Members across the House, because it creates unnecessary uncertainty. There will be decades of work in the oil and gas industry in the North sea, whether or not we issue new licences. And, as has been mentioned, the skills, the experience and the infrastructure that is vital for a net zero transition are important. That is why we need to start the just transition now. It is why we should have started it years ago, frankly. We cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and hope that the economic reality of the future will be the same as the past. The North sea is declining as an oil and gas basin. We need to tackle what the future of that looks like now.

  The hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) raised a concern about solar threatening our ability to grow our own food in this country. I respectfully suggest that he checks out the recent research by Exeter University, which shows that we could increase the amount of renewable energy we generate in this country 13 times over using, I believe, less than 3% of the UK’s land, and none of the highest-grade agricultural land—

  A number of other points were made in this debate that underline how complex some of these decisions are going to be, but also the huge opportunities we have. A number of Members spoke about the industrial opportunity that will come from this green transition, and a number offered up examples from their own constituencies relating to the role of skills, which is going to be so important. The sense that this is the mission that we need to be on together as a country is also important, because it will take all of us—with all of our expertise, and the challenge that comes from the Opposition—to make the right decisions so that we can have a long-term plan that delivers the net zero future that we need.

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• 7 Mar 2024: Budget Resolutions

  16:13

  Minutes after the Chancellor sat down, we had the spectacle of the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) refusing to say whether he would back his own Government’s plan to expand the windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. I am not sure if he is still on resignation watch or whether his chat with the Chancellor has moved him back to a stronger position, but yesterday, the Tories in the Scottish Parliament had a debate denouncing expanding the windfall tax, and the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross) has said he will vote against it. This morning, the Chancellor said it would present a little local difficulty. This is utter chaos, less than a day after he delivered the Budget. With any other Government, at any other time, they would be the laughing stock of the country, but so low have our expectations fallen that it is not even getting the attention it should.

  The only way out of this doom loop of economic chaos, higher taxes and stagnant living standards is real change, with a Government focused on growing the economy, making work pay and turning the UK into a green energy superpower. That is the change that Scotland needs. That is the change that the UK needs. That is the change that Labour will deliver. We need a general election so that we can get on and do it.

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