Energy and Climate Change and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Part of Debate on the Address – in the House of Commons at 9:11 pm on 24 November 2009.

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Photo of Michael Weir Michael Weir Shadow Spokesperson (Trade and Industry), Shadow Spokesperson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 9:11, 24 November 2009

Many hon. Members have expressed sympathy for the people of Cumbria in the recent floods, and I associate myself with that. However, may I also point out that other areas have been affected, not least the south-west of Scotland, which just shows that the effects of climate change do not respect boundaries? Indeed, I saw on "Reporting Scotland" the other night that the constituency office of Mr. Brown was flooded.

The most important issue facing the Department of Energy and Climate Change is the Copenhagen summit and the need to reach agreement. I have to confess that I have become increasingly concerned about the outcome, especially if a deal is not made or if the issue is fudged at a future summit. That may well be the political reality, but I fear that there is a serious risk of a sense of hopelessness taking root in the face of climate change. I was interested to note that the recent HSBC climate confidence monitor reported not that people did not believe in climate change but that a significant percentage did not believe that there was anything that we could do about it. If that attitude becomes more prevalent, it points to serious difficulties ahead.

We have spent many years, however, telling people that we need to make a deal at Copenhagen. If world leaders suddenly decide that it is not urgent and that it can wait for another year, what sort of message does that send out to the peoples of the world? However it is dressed up, it will be a serious setback for acceptance of the need for strong action to tackle climate change. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change rightly pointed out that we need to discuss the costs of climate change-and, I would add, we must take the opportunity to do so. Out in the country, there is very little appreciation of what an 80 per cent. reduction in emissions means, so there is a huge need for education, because it will have a serious impact on our economy and way of life. I am convinced that most people do not understand the full impact.

On other aspects of the Energy Bill and how they relate to the low-carbon economy, I fully support the Bill's aims of tackling fuel poverty and creating funding for carbon capture and storage. It makes positive moves towards helping people in fuel poverty, including the mandatory introduction of social tariffs, which have long been argued for. Yet again, one group of fuel-poor have been omitted-those who are not on the gas mains and who rely for heating either on liquefied petroleum gas or on heating oil. I, and many other hon. Members who represent rural constituencies, have long argued for action on that. An inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading unfortunately did not produce a positive outcome, but it is a serious issue. There is a great deal of fuel poverty in rural areas, and we need to find a solution. I urge Ministers to look at it again, to see whether we can come up with something to help that group.

As I pointed out in an intervention, although there is provision for information to be passed on, a data-sharing project is still in its early stages. I was interested in what the Secretary of State said about introducing regulations in the next week, and I look forward to seeing them.

I welcome the provisions in the Bill to amend the powers of Ofgem. I have had many vigorous discussions with it in my years in the House on many aspects of its work. I am particularly pleased to see that at long last competition will not be its sole guiding light. In reaching its decisions, Ofgem must take into account both security of supply and climate change. From my experience, I suspect that to put this into practice will require a significant change of culture at Ofgem. I hope Ministers will push for that at the earliest opportunity. The current culture is amply illustrated by reported attempts by Ofgem in effect to undermine proposals for a feed-in tariff. I look forward to debating those issues in Committee.

As an MP for the north-east of Scotland, I want to say something about the oil and gas industry, which is very important to my area. Ministers will be aware that the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change recently produced a report which brought out some interesting issues on the future of that industry. We are clearly in a state of transition as we work towards a low-carbon economy. The existence of oil and gas off our shores puts us in an enviable position in some respects as we have a cushion during that transition, but it also presents us with a huge challenge. So many people are employed in the oil and gas sector that we need to manage that transition carefully and ensure that the skills developed in the North sea are retained and transferred to new jobs in the new economy. We are presented with the challenge of turning carbon jobs into green jobs.

For the foreseeable future, as has been said by others, fossil fuels will still play a considerable part in our economy. We note in our report that more than 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been produced over the past 40 years and a considerable amount remains in the North sea. Witnesses said that between 11 billion and 37 billion barrels remain, which is a significant amount of oil, whichever figure one takes.