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Fourth Carbon Budget

Perhaps I would be forgiven for wondering whether the hon. Lady and I have been living in the same country for the past few years. Given the picture that she is painting of policies that have been put in place to deliver on carbon budgets, she should perhaps remember that our inheritance after 13 years of the previous Labour Government is that our renewable sector is 25th out of 27 EU member states. That is not a record of which the hon. Lady can be proud. As for efforts to be made, for example, on energy efficiency, it took this Government to introduce the Energy Bill, which legislates for the green deal, which is the most comprehensive attempt to deal with energy saving in future. Since the hon. Lady asked, I can assure her that the carbon budget has been approved unanimously by the Cabinet and has the support of the Business Secretary, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. It is an important commitment by the Government, because it is the first commitment beyond the period for which the EU has legislated. Unlike the previous Labour Government's three carbon budgets, this one goes beyond what the EU requires of us. We have set it according to our own domestic legislative framework and with our own domestic legislative agenda. The 2014 review will be simple and clear. On the traded sector, which is crucial to our international competitiveness, we will review what is happening in the rest of the EU, because it is appropriate that we move at the same pace as the sector there. The hon. Lady mentioned that the green investment bank can borrow in 2015, which is crucial because the second part of this decade will see the greatest need for borrowing powers to ensure the installation of renewable and other low-carbon energy. I am astonished by her description of what has happened so far under this Government. We have set aside more than £800 million for a renewable heat incentive, and we are legislating for a carbon price floor. Despite the Opposition's warm words, in 13 years of a Labour Government not a single piece of turf was turned in order to install a single new nuclear reactor, yet work has already begun at Hinkley Point. The sense of urgency in dealing with the climate change challenge displayed by this Government is of an entirely different order of magnitude. On clean coal and gas, about which the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner) and some of his friends are particularly concerned, the Government, in an extremely tough and difficult expenditure round in which we have to clear up the mess inherited from the Labour party, found £1 billion to set aside for the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage project. In 13 years under Labour, no money was put aside and no planning was done for low-carbon growth. We will proceed with our national planning statements, and there will be an interim review by the nuclear regulator, Mike Weightman, which I anticipate coming shortly. The hon. Lady asked a detailed question about road pricing. We have made it clear already that there will be no plans for that in this Parliament. I repeat, however, that we are set on a road that will unlock enormous opportunities for British business, with a low-carbon economy and high growth.