VoteClimate: Oral Answers to Questions - 21st March 2023

Oral Answers to Questions - 21st March 2023

Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Oral Answers to Questions.

Full text: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2023-03-21/debates/26B7C989-7398-4288-8A6A-FB0CDB33AC38/OralAnswersToQuestions

Martin Vickers (Conservative)

The county of Lincolnshire has great opportunities for economic development in both rural and urban areas. In particular, the Cleethorpes constituency is a major centre for the renewable energy sector and contains a major port at Immingham. Freeport status has been granted for the Humber freeport, but I understand that we are awaiting final Treasury sign-off. Can the Minister give us an indication of when that will happen?

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Catherine West (Labour)

11. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the economy in reaching net-zero carbon emissions. ( 904218 )

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Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)

17. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the economy in reaching net-zero carbon emissions. ( 904224 )

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Jeff Smith (Labour)

20. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the economy in reaching net-zero carbon emissions. ( 904227 )

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Stephen Morgan (Labour)

22. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the economy in reaching net-zero carbon emissions. ( 904229 )

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James Cartlidge (Conservative)

At the spending review 2021, we confirmed that since March 2021 the Government will have committed a total £30 billion of public investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, the Government have made new announcements to provide long-term certainty on our investment plans, including £6 billion for energy efficiency from 2025 and up to £20 billion for carbon capture, usage and storage. The Government will set out further action shortly to support green industries in the UK and meet our net zero 2050 commitment.

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Catherine West (Labour)

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its report on the latest data, warning that the world is fast approaching irreversible levels of global heating. Why is the Treasury still giving energy companies an easy ride through lucrative loopholes in the energy windfall tax? The Treasury should be prioritising investments in renewables so that over time, our bills can come down.

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James Cartlidge (Conservative)

I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his consistency—he raised this with me on Thursday in my winding-up speech on the Budget debate. As I said then, we will announce further details soon, but I can confirm that I will be meeting the Carbon Capture and Storage Association tomorrow. I look forward to the meeting. This is an incredibly important step forward, because we must remember that carbon capture does not just give us clean energy, but enables heavy industry to decarbonise.

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Richard Fuller (Conservative)

The truth is that it is under this Conservative Government that the greatest strides have been accomplished in harnessing the British economy to achieve net zero, with the leadership of COP26, the establishment of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and the introduction of corporate reporting on carbon emissions for our major corporations. Will my hon. Friend work with British business to continue that progress and ensure that we can all move forward successfully to achieve net zero?

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James Cartlidge (Conservative)

My hon. Friend speaks with passion, experience and expertise, and he is absolutely right. Of course we work closely with investors and business—one key example is the contracts for difference regime. Last July, we had the largest ever allocation of contracts through the contracts for difference process, contracting about 11 GW of clean power, which is enough clean energy for 12 million homes. That is a huge step forward, and it shows that we are delivering on net zero. As a party, we will balance that with energy security so that we learn the lessons of the last 12 months.

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Virginia Crosbie (Ynys Môn) (Con)

Ynys Môn is known as energy island. It has wind, wave, tidal and solar, and will have, I hope, new nuclear at Wylfa. For more than three years, I have campaigned for Anglesey to be a freeport, which would turbocharge the island’s economy and help the Government to deliver net zero. We are due to hear from the Welsh Government and the UK Government by early spring on whether our island’s bid has been successful. It feels like early spring in my Holyhead garden. Does it feel like early spring in the Chancellor’s garden?

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Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour)

The Confederation of British Industry says that we are investing five times less in green industries than Germany—five times less. Meanwhile, the United Nations issues warnings of a climate disaster. Where is the urgency and action from the Conservatives to decarbonise our economy and win the global race for green jobs?

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Jeremy Hunt (Conservative)

We are interested in giving support to all forms of renewable energy, and the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury is very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss those issues further.

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