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Energy: National Policy Statements

My Lords, I apologise to the Minister for missing the first minute of his Statement. Like the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, I was caught metaphorically speaking with my trousers down elsewhere. I welcome the Statement. It is a good thing that at last at last we have one; .at last we have some movement. Having said that, we need to keep a rational perspective about nuclear energy, which I entirely agree we need and will have to put in place. The noble Lord, Lord Flowers, who we sadly no longer see in his place nowadays, remarked to me well over 10 years ago that, in the final analysis, mankind had only one source of energy and that was nuclear. We had a choice between having a power station here or 98 million miles away, and he knew which one he preferred. He was prescient. I wish that the Government were paying more attention even now to 2050. We need to remember that most of the massive plant that is likely to be constructed as a result of this Statement today is likely to still be living and working in 2050. We are gambling with the 2050 target, particularly in relation to coal-fired generation. We are gambling that carbon capture and storage will work and that it will capture 100 per cent of the carbon. I would welcome an assurance from the Minister that it will do that because, if it does not, it will put an even greater question over the whole subject. We are also gambling that it will be economically competitive. There is a real possibility that that will not be the case. I could go on for another two or three minutes but I see that our time is up. I will give the Minister a chance to reply.