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Energy Bill

I support a greenhouse gas emissions performance standard. This side of the Committee has often said that there needs to be a transformation of the way we use and generate energy in this country. That change requires a fundamental shift in our long-term investment in energy and serious encouragement of new green technologies. We strongly feel that a performance emissions standard will do both those things. The next 10 years will be crucial. The UK’s energy landscape must be overhauled if we are to meet our target of reducing emissions by 26 per cent by 2020. The way we produce energy is one of the largest contributors to our emissions. Unabated coal-powered generation, the most polluting technology, accounts for almost 40 per cent of the UK’s current electricity capacity, and much of it is due to be decommissioned. Similarly, a significant majority of the UK’s nuclear supply is also due for retirement, and this is all happening at a time when energy demand is expected to rise. It is therefore necessary for transformative steps to be taken if we are to ensure a secure supply of energy. Now is our opportunity. We support a legally binding UK emissions performance standard that would mean that there would be a maximum level of emissions allowed per megawatt hour, more or less benchmarked on modern combined-cycle gas turbine plants. The implication would be that new coal-fired power stations in the UK would have to incorporate carbon capture and storage technology from the outset, limiting their emissions to the level achieved by modern gas stations. This proposal has worked well in California. Governor Schwarzenegger describes EPS as operating in a similar fashion to the standard set for household appliances, such as refrigerators, where there are minimum performance standards beyond which it is up to the market to compete as products meet or exceed the minimum standard. This proposal would require the Government to fund a variety of CCS demonstration projects over the next five to 10 years. We on these Benches would be prepared to give such funding and would pay for it out of receipts from the third and subsequent stages of European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. An emissions performance standard would revolutionise the development of carbon capture and storage. It would send clear market signals regarding the direction of the industry, letting developers know that the energy that they produce must be as clean as the highest efficiency plants currently in operation. That would open up the market. It would let suppliers choose which way they pursue this level of green commitment—through carbon capture, renewables or different types of gasification. The emissions performance standard would prevent plants such as Kingsnorth from being built without technologies that abate its impact on the environment. We would assist the industry in making these changes. This help would ensure a diversified, clean energy mix for the UK and develop the industry in a way that prepares it for the decades ahead. The long-term benefit extends beyond our borders. The UK would be seen as a test bed for CCS technology. It would be the birth of an industry that is not only exportable, but likely to be essential around the world in the coming years. If problems could be worked out here and the intellectual property rights established in this country, the UK would be able to lead a worldwide energy revolution, with British workers leading the way. The amendment seems to be a general enabling amendment. I am sure that the Minister will be quick to point out some problems with the drafting, if he can hear me. I am prepared to repeat that.