13:48 John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab)

In Prime Minister’s questions today, the Prime Minister was asked about his previous statement on tariffs. As I said earlier, no one really knows what those tariffs are. The Department of Energy and Climate Change told our Select Committee that it could not intervene and that it was down to the companies, but now it says it can intervene.

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14:08 Mr Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)

The hon. Gentleman was an excellent member of the previous Energy and Climate Change Committee, although we did not always agree, particularly when nuclear matters were being discussed. Does he agree that those who would save the most money by switching are the ones who do not receive the necessary information, or even have an opportunity to switch?

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14:31 Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con)

I support this Government’s efforts to explore shale gas provision through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as well as the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and to try to make the most of the fact that we have so much potential shale gas power. It has transformed the energy market in the United States of America. If we do not push forward with this, we will have to face up to the consequences. We must proceed in an environmentally sound way, of course, but we should be pursuing the shale gas option.

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14:43 Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)

The hon. Gentleman mentions Brussels, and he, like me, is a strong supporter of carbon capture and storage technology; I not sure whether he was about to make some remarks about it. Given what he has just said, does he share my concern about today’s suggestion by his Lib Dem MEP colleague Chris Davies that the NER300 money that was supposed to be available for potential UK CCS projects is now not going to be available? Chris Davies said:

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14:49 Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)

A year ago, when the state of the market was similar—prices were going up but not coming down sharply enough—the Government clearly believed that by putting indirect pressure on the energy companies, they could get change. The former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne), gathered the big six together for a Downing street gaggle. That resulted in a series of announcements, but a year down the line, the problems have only got worse. The short term is important.

Right hon. and hon. Members know the long-term challenges. Often we do not get caught up in talking about them and instead focus on the short-term politics, but there is a clear and consistent direction of travel: climate change and our domestic energy security require us to make significant changes to our markets. Building on the previous Government’s success, this Government have introduced a range of initiatives, including energy efficiency measures and the green deal. Although we have expressed our concerns about the green deal, we welcome the Government’s direction of travel.

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15:01 Ian Lavery (Labour)

Let us be honest. The statement made by the Prime Minister last week at Question Time was ridiculous. It probably was not a statement, but it could be described as a reactionary outburst. I enjoyed the urgent question, which was replied to by the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes), a man for whom I have tremendous respect. He valiantly and gallantly supported the Prime Minister, defending the indefensible. It was something that every Member of Parliament would have been pleased to experience. That was a very difficult task.

We are determined to decarbonise our energy sector. We set target after target. We do not have a cohesive energy policy, we do not have a cohesive strategy, yet we set targets in line with commitments that we are not sure we can keep. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is at its lowest point in my time here. There is uncertainty out there among large and small businesses, leading to investment unrest. They are not sure whether the energy plans proposed by the Government will change from one day to the next. There is no evidence-based financial structure to the policies being pursued by the Government. That creates mayhem for businesses that wish to invest in all types of energy in this country, mainly renewables and nuclear. DECC is in meltdown. It has some grand ideas, but the problem is that those seem to be hugely curtailed by the Treasury.

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15:19 David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)

The three main policy areas in the electricity market are carbon and decarbonisation, which we must achieve, cost, and security. Interestingly, we sometimes assume that we are behind as regards carbon. It is true that we are behind France—with massive amounts of cheap nuclear energy, we use more carbon per head than the French by a long way—but we use a lot less per head than Germany, despite the fact that Germany has four times as much renewable energy as we have, because it continues to burn coal to a massive degree. That is what we need to address in terms of our decarbonisation agenda. The previous Government signed us up for renewables targets that were extremely onerous and will have only a minor impact on the amount of carbon that we use. The country that has reduced its carbon by the most over the past year or so is the United States as it has replaced coal with shale gas.

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15:25 Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)

From the outset, and squarely within the national interest, but also in the best interests of my constituents, I offer the new Energy Minister, who is in his place, all the support he could possibly ask for, should he make the right decisions—but, more importantly, should he make them in a timely manner. The truth is that we are running out of time if we are serious about tackling fuel poverty, tackling security of supply—a looming crisis of incredible proportions that this House too readily ignores—and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

The Minister knows that we need new nuclear and that we need it quickly. He knows that over the next 15 years, barring lifetime extensions, we will be down to one operating nuclear station. The heavy lifting on support for nuclear generation has been done already over many years. The public support it, the need is clear and the demand is great, but we must accelerate delivery or else invite collapse. I urge the Government to pay close attention to the evidence given by Vincent de Rivas, the EDF chief executive officer, to the Energy and Climate Change Committee yesterday. He said:

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15:36 Barry Gardiner (Labour)

The first objective is on carbon targets. We have our 2020 targets and our 2030 targets, and the Committee on Climate Change has been clear that we should look to set a target of 40 grams to 60 grams of carbon dioxide per kWh and move towards achieving our renewables targets. If we are to reconfigure the market, let us do it to achieve that objective.

Security of supply includes the investment of £200 billion over the next decade in our energy network and of £110 billion in our electricity infrastructure. That is to replace the 30% of generation that will go off stream by 2024. We need base load, yet today’s rumour is that the EU new entrants reserve carbon capture and storage project in the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) will not now proceed because of the Government’s failure either to match fund or to submit the appropriate information to secure the bid. CCS is vital because coal is vital—vital to India and to China—and whatever we do with renewables in this country, unless we come up with a CCS solution for coal-fired generation around the world, any paltry reduction in emissions achieved by the UK will not stop climate change. That is why we need a global perspective on our own energy policy. The CCS technology that we can put in place could drive the entire green economy to which both sides of the House claim to have signed up, but of which we see very little evidence.

Nuclear base load is an essential part of the mix, but the Government are set to negotiate a strike price for the nuclear feed-in tariff in the region of £100 per megawatt-hour. The cost of the two EDF reactors at Hinkley Point has risen by £14 billion and is tied in with the strike price. That is madness for a 40-year lifecycle project when onshore wind is already performing at as low as £94 per megawatt-hour, and figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change suggest that offshore wind will achieve £100 per megawatt-hour by 2020.

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15:42 Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)

Despite the confusion on the Government Benches, we have heard a number of excellent speeches this afternoon. In his response, will the Minister address the serious points raised by a number of Members about the circulating rumours that the UK is set to lose out on up to €600 million for CCS because the Chancellor has blocked the match funding?

In his opening remarks, the Secretary of State mentioned the record of the Labour Government—I am delighted he wanted to talk about the Labour Government, because I am proud of our record. We lifted 1.75 million people out of fuel poverty; an average of 200,000 every year were helped under Warm Front; and 6 million homes were insulated thanks to obligations placed on energy companies. We had the decent homes standard, winter fuel payments and the world’s first climate change legislation.

No one is saying that the energy market is not complicated, or that changing it is easy. Difficult questions need answering. How do we move from a high-carbon, high-cost economy to a low-carbon, low-cost one? How can we meet our climate change obligations while keeping the lights on? How can we help those who are off-grid as much as those who are on-grid? A number of hon. Members made representations to that effect.

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15:50 John Hayes (Conservative)

Who was the ditherer in chief who presided over this spectacular inaction? It was none other than Disraeli’s new best mate, the Leader of the Opposition. Just a couple of years ago, as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, he told the House that the purpose of his own energy Bill was

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