21:04 Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)

We already have a track record of such projects, including electric transport infrastructure, offshore energy, carbon capture and storage, biomass and renewable energy production. As has already been said, there is also a real commitment to green ideals in the Leeds city region. That comes from the public sector, but it also comes from the private and the third sectors. In April this year, the Leeds city region published a business survey which showed that, in respect of environmental innovation, 47% of businesses in the region reported that they had already taken significant action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. That demonstrates that we are at the forefront of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

As I said to the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney), so much that the green investment bank wants to do and wants to invest in is already happening in the Leeds city region. We have to accept that decarbonising the industrial and manufacturing sectors will be one of the green investment bank’s biggest challenges. Our industrial past has left us with a huge challenge. Yorkshire and Humber as a whole is home to the UK’s largest cluster of industrial CO 2 emissions, equivalent to half the domestic emissions of the UK. Our three coal-fired power stations generate 17% of the UK’s energy alone. Drax power station in the region is already co-firing with biomass in a bid to achieve its aim to generate 12.5% of its electricity in that way. That makes it the largest project of its kind in the world. It has plans for three new dedicated biomass-fired plants, which would together add a further 900 MW to the UK’s energy generation.

My hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley mentioned Kirklees. The Kirklees warm zone scheme is viewed as national best practice in funding and delivering domestic retrofit, and it has reduced fuel poverty in some of the most deprived wards in the country. Building on that experience, the Leeds city region is now establishing a city-wide retrofit programme and is advising the Department of Energy and Climate Change on the deployment of the green deal. And that is just in the Leeds City Region.

We also have the Centre for Low Carbon Futures, which is a partnership of universities that has a track record in providing expert advice to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. It includes the centre for climate change economics and policy at the university of Leeds. We also have Science City York, which is a partnership company of academics and the private and public sectors that has expertise in bio-renewables. It has directly helped to establish more than 100 new technology companies.

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21:33 The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Mark Prisk)

When I went to the city, I was also struck—several right hon. and hon. Members mentioned this—that there is a genuine local commitment to going green in local initiatives, such as the better business environment forum or the Leeds climate change charter. Leeds is one of only four cities in the UK that is designated as an environment city. Local people recently celebrated the European year of volunteering environmental theme with projects including river cleaning, action mornings to maintain the Gledhow valley woods—I am getting a generous nod so I trust my pronunciation was correct—and a comprehensive scheme of planting bulbs and flowers in public places. That happens in other parts of the world regularly, but it is nevertheless part of that voluntary wish to recognise the value of a genuine sustainable community and economy.

I appreciate that there is a genuine commitment to a green, low-carbon future right across Leeds. Nationally, the Government are taking real action to try to put the whole economy on that path. Over the summer, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Energy and Climate Change published plans that map out the Government’s approach to building the green economy and show what that means in practice for business. The plans set out the range of policies we are using to support the transition to a green economy and the opportunities that we have created, but also the implications for some of those traditional businesses, which, as various right hon. and hon. Members have mentioned, will need to change how they operate to develop in future.

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