Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)

Q2. The Prime Minister has previously declared “my…daughter…is the climate change champion in our house.”I wonder if he has asked her what she thinks about Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North sea, which would blow climate targets, create more emissions than 28 of the world’s poorest countries combined, involve the obscene transfer of £4 billion of taxpayers’ money to a Norwegian energy firm—Equinor—and do nothing for energy security since the vast majority of the oil will be exported. If he gives Rosebank the green light, will he be able to look his daughter in the eye and honestly say that he has done everything in his power to give her and all other young people a liveable future? ( 904800 )

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Rishi Sunak (Conservative)

As the independent Climate Change Committee has acknowledged, we will need fossil fuels for the next few decades as we transition to a greener future. During that period, it makes absolutely no sense not to invest in the resources that we have here at home and not to create jobs here but to import foreign fossil fuels at twice the carbon emissions of our local resources. It is an economically illiterate policy—but that is what we would expect from the Green party.

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Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)

Q9. Over the last two years, the Drax power station in Yorkshire has burned an average of nearly 20,000 tonnes of trees every single day, releasing an equivalent amount of carbon into the atmosphere. During that time, while our constituents have struggled with their heating bills, the private company running Drax has received £1.5 million of subsidy through the Government’s energy policy every single day. That is set to continue until 2027. Will the Prime Minister step in and review this grotesque distortion of energy policy, which incentivises deforestation while making no contribution to tackling the climate emergency? ( 904807 )

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Rishi Sunak (Conservative)

While I cannot comment on the contract details of one particular company, what I can comment on is our record on this issue. Since the benchmark was established, emissions in this country have fallen by nearly 50%, and we have also grown the economy by two thirds—although I know the SNP Government are not as focused on that as we are. At the same time, because of the way in which we regulate new and renewable energies, we have seen the price of renewables such as offshore wind decline from £140 an hour to about £40. That shows a regulatory system that is working in delivering lower-cost, renewable energy to British families.

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