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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

I tabled new clause 3 because if we are to have a constructive debate about climate change and sustainable energy, which is what the Bill is all about, we need to ensure that the public are properly informed of the facts and options. At the moment, the extent to which energy consumption in this country is rising and the sources of that energy consumption are not generally known. New clause 3 thus refers specifically to energy consumption. In 1998, energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 155.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent. The ““Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2004””, which is published by the Department of Trade and Industry, says that that was shared among the domestic sector, which consumed 46.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent, industry, which consumed 34.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent, transport, which consumed 53.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent, and other sectors, which consumed 21.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Solid fuels accounted for 5.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Petroleum accounted for 66 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Gas accounted for 55.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent, electricity for 27.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent and renewables for 0.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent. One does not have to be a mathematician to see that renewables, which are effectively the subject of today’s debate, produced an extremely small proportion of the energy consumed. The latest figures for 2004—I will not cite the statistics for the intervening years—show that total energy consumption in the United Kingdom rose from 155.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent to 161 million tonnes of oil equivalent between 1998 and 2004. Energy consumption in the United Kingdom thus increased by 5.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Over that period, the amount of energy consumption by fuel changed dramatically. The amount for which solid fuels accounted dropped from 5.3 million to 3 million tonnes of oil equivalent, while the figure for petroleum increased from 66 million to 69.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent. The figure for gas increased slightly from 55.9 million to 56 million tonnes of oil equivalent, and the figure for electricity from 27.1 million to 29.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent—an increase of 2.1 million tonnes. However, the amount of energy that came from renewables fell from 0.9 million to 0.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent, although it is fair to say that 2.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent came from ““heat sold”” in 2004. I cite the statistics because they show that the mood music behind the Bill, which is an attempt to make people think that if we talk a lot about renewables, we will sort out the problems of climate change, is completely fallacious. Although there was an increase in energy consumption of 5.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent between 1998 and 2004, the amount of energy produced by renewables went down. We know from the Government’s most optimistic figures that 10 per cent. of electricity should be produced by renewables by 2010, but that would be less than 3 million tonnes of oil equivalent, which is a lower figure than the total increase in energy consumption between 1998 and 2004. On even the Government’s most optimistic view, renewables will not contribute to reducing the proportion of energy consumed that comes from other sources. There is a belief that global warming and climate change are the biggest issues that we face, and the Government’s chief scientific adviser says that they are more important than terrorism. If they are of such gravity, it is important that we ensure that the proper figures are available so that a good public debate can take place.