Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Draft Renewables Obligation (Amendment) (Energy Intensive Industries) Order 2017.
11:30 The Minister for Climate Change and Industry (Claire Perry)
To meet our legally-binding climate change and renewable energy targets, we have implemented a number of policies designed to incentivise the generation of electricity from renewable resources. The costs of those policies—or the investment—are recovered through obligations and levies on suppliers, which pass the additional costs on to their customers. The renewables obligation scheme is such a policy. Since 2002, it has been the main financial mechanism to deploy renewable electricity generation in the UK. We all know and should celebrate the enormous success we have seen in moving away from dirty fossil fuel power generation to renewable sources. In 2002, 2.9% of our electricity was created from renewable sources. Last year, the figure had gone up to 25%.
As I also set out in the clean growth strategy, the pool of carbon emissions emitted by industry and businesses is now the largest in the UK. That is what we need to target, and we have the aim of improving energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. Of course, that will not only cut emissions, but reduce the costs that industries pay for their overall energy. We are working with the most energy-intensive sectors to implement the joint action plans that we have developed with them on industrial decarbonisation and energy efficiency.
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11:44 Chi Onwurah (Labour)
However, as we work towards a greener future and fulfil our international obligations to reduce carbon emissions, we need to develop manufacturing methods that are sustainable, including in their use of energy. That was what the renewables obligation, which was brought in by the last Labour Government in 2002, sought to achieve, by providing support drawn from energy bills for the development of renewable energy, and thus contributing to meeting the UK’s EU target to produce 15% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020 and our low-carbon goals. As the Minister set out, that system was superseded by a combination of the feed-in tariff for small-scale generators and contracts for difference for large-scale generators, but existing projects benefited from the renewables obligation and will continue to do so for a number of years.
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11:51 Chi Onwurah (Labour)
I thank the Minister for that intervention—it is always good to have a debate—but I disagree with her strongly. It should be difficult to get money out of the Government; that could be called accountability. The reason we have a Government is that they take decisions on behalf of the population—the citizens as a whole—that support the Government’s values and objectives. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy should set out those objectives, including greater renewable energy and support for our foundation industries, in its industrial strategy, and be prepared to support them financially. Perhaps that is a key difference between my, and Labour’s, vision of Government and that of the hon. Lady. We believe that the Government and the public sector can make positive interventions in an entrepreneurial and innovative way to fulfil the ambitions and the potential of our industries and citizens.
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