Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Annual Energy Statement.
Full text: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2013-10-31/debates/13103165000003/AnnualEnergyStatement
11:27 Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
Today, I am laying before the House the annual energy statement, alongside the statutory security of supply report. This coalition Government are putting in place the most coherent, sustainable energy policy the United Kingdom has ever had. We are creating one of the most competitive and attractive electricity investment markets in the world; improving our energy security and affordability; and boosting home-grown clean energy, and providing jobs and economic growth in the process.
This ambitious energy and climate change policy is vital so that Britain can meet our significant challenges. The coalition Government inherited from the previous Administration an energy future with a huge, multi-billion pound black hole at its heart, which was the result of years of underinvestment, dithering and delay. So this Government are having to take the tough decisions others ducked to make sure that Britain’s lights do stay on. Everything we are doing has to ensure that we drive investment into the system, not scare it off or freeze it out. But, as I will make clear in this statement, energy security must go hand in hand with affordability.
The fruits of bringing this greater predictability and certainty to investment are already showing. Latest estimates suggest that at least £35 billion has been invested in new electricity infrastructure since 2010, and much more is in the pipeline. In the past 12 months alone, we have provided consent for seven major energy infrastructure applications worth about £20 billion, with the capacity to generate electricity for more than 6 million homes. That, of course, included last week’s announcement that we have reached key commercial terms with EDF for the first new nuclear power station in a generation at Hinkley Point C. And there is more: through the Energy Bill’s final investment decision enabling programme, 23 applications for 26 investment contracts are currently being evaluated by the Department of Energy and Climate Change for a broad range of renewable technologies, including onshore wind, offshore wind and biomass projects.
We have also brought together in one place all the advice from across Government—from the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Work and Pensions—and from charities such as Age UK and Citizens Advice. Today, I am writing to all Members of this House with information about this new guide so that they can share it with their constituents, to make sure they are getting all the help to which they are entitled.
I have also written to energy companies about direct debits. I share concerns that they might be holding on to significant credit balances when customers have overpaid through direct debits. I expect all suppliers to make every effort to return money to customers with closed accounts. I accept that that sometimes will not be possible, but, when it is not, my view is that credits should be applied directly to help the fuel poor and other vulnerable customers. The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker), will meet energy suppliers next week to discuss that question and that of the level of credit balances that energy companies are holding on to.
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11:44 Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)
The energy companies blame social and environmental obligations for their price rises, so the Prime Minister promises to roll them back. Threatened by Labour’s price freeze and plans to reset the energy market, suddenly the companies are clamouring for another review to kick the issue into the long grass. On Tuesday the chief executive of E.ON told the Energy and Climate Change Committee:
The proof of how weak and spineless the Government are when it comes to standing up to the energy companies is that only three weeks ago the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) told the BBC that the idea that Government levies were responsible for bill rises was “nonsense”, but now, boxed in by a Prime Minister who is not willing to stand up to the energy companies and a Chancellor who is actively courting climate change deniers in his own party, the Government say that the levies are to blame.
Today’s annual energy statement could not have come at a more important time. Energy prices are rising three times faster under this Government than the previous one, bills are up by £300, and the latest price rises will add another £100 this winter. For people in fuel poverty, the gap between their bills and what they can afford is at an all-time high, but for the companies, the mark-up between wholesale costs and the prices they charge grows ever wider. Fifty-seven households have had work done under the green deal and 7,000 workers in the insulation industry have lost their jobs. Investment in clean energy has halved, and the Government have legislated to stop any future Administration setting a decarbonisation target until 2016 at the earliest. Last year, the UK’s carbon emissions increased by more than any other country in the EU.
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11:49 Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD)
I am delighted to welcome the fact that the Government support the Energy and Climate Change Committee’s call for a competition review and to press Ofgem on greater implementation of BDO’s recommendations on transparency. Will the Secretary of State confirm that the market reforms will end the exploitation of the inertia on the part of customers on existing tariffs, which leaves them languishing on uncompetitive tariffs?
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Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
If the Secretary of State was serious about helping the fuel-poor, surely he would be acting to make the UK housing stock far more energy efficient, which is the only permanent way to bring down bills, according to the Child Poverty Action Group, Age UK and many other charities that support proposals to recycle carbon tax revenue into energy efficiency. That would bring nine out of 10 homes out of fuel poverty, quadruple carbon savings and create up to 200,000 jobs, so why does the Secretary of State continue to ignore calls for such ambitious policies?
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12:02 Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State acknowledge that for too long his Department’s drive for expensive and intermittent renewable energy has driven thousands into fuel poverty? Indeed, a former Secretary of State—now the Leader of the Opposition—said in this place in January 2010 that
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12:03 Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
I have to say that the hon. Gentleman is wrong about that. We are trying to ensure we help the fuel-poor with effective policies such as the energy company obligation and the warm home discount. The support in the Energy Bill for green energy is a small part of the Bill—as he knows—and it is helping the country prepare for the ever higher gas prices we are likely to see. If we do not go green, there is a real danger we will expose consumers and our economy to high, volatile fossil fuel prices in the future. We must have a more sensible and diverse energy mix.
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12:06 Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are many problems with Labour’s energy price freeze. First, it is a con because it will not help consumers. Secondly, it undermines competition. However, worst of all in many ways, it will kill the investment that we need both for green energy and to keep the lights on. People in the energy industry are saying that. The Leader of the Opposition has done one of the most irresponsible things ever done by a Leader of the Opposition.
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12:09 Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The previous Government failed to do anything for people who are off the gas grid. The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon), has been taking action, talking to the companies and the people affected. There is a new code of conduct and there are regular working group meetings. That is action, unlike what Labour did.
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