The comments made by Greg Hands, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, on 20 December 2021.
Developing greener fuels like biomass is key to helping the UK slash carbon emissions and drive down costs for consumers.
This £26 million government investment will support innovators across the UK, boosting jobs and investment, and help ensure we have the homegrown supply we need to support our plans to build back greener and tackle climate change.
The comments made by Greg Hands, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, on 7 December 2021.
This £116 million government investment will support businesses across the nation to turn their green ideas into reality, and to develop ground-breaking projects that save energy, slash utility bills and tackle pollution.
British businesses and entrepreneurs are already leading the world with innovative solutions to tackling climate change. This is not only good for the planet, but will bring new jobs and investment across the UK.
The speech made by Greg Hands, the Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, in the House of Commons on 6 December 2021.
As the House will know, the Secretary of State updated Members last week on how we are continuing to work to ensure that power is restored to people’s homes following Storm Arwen. We have provided a named contact for MPs, on request, for each network operator, which I was delighted to do personally with the right hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) on Friday morning.
Storm Arwen was the worst storm in over 15 years in terms of the disruption and damage caused. Those most badly hit have been in northern England and Scotland, and some have now been without power for over a week. That has made life incredibly difficult and stressful for many residents, and I want to assure them that help is there.
On Wednesday, I visited County Durham and on Friday I visited Aberdeenshire to see first-hand some of the devastation caused by Storm Arwen, and yesterday the Secretary of State was also in the north-east of England. I thank the engineers, the emergency workers and our armed forces who are on the ground for their incredibly hard work and perseverance in challenging conditions. We have removed the compensation limit to allow customers affected to claim up to £140 per day if they are without power.
I am glad to say that 99.8% of those affected by the storm have had their power supply restored so far—but this is not good enough. It is completely unacceptable that about 1,600 of them were still in this position as of this morning, although the situation is improving each hour. The remaining areas affected are in the north-east of England, predominantly the Wear valley surrounding Eastgate, where I was on Wednesday. I have been assured by the network operators that all efforts are focused on having power restored to those households in the next days.
The comments made by Greg Hands, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, on 11 November 2021.
By 2050 urban areas will be home to two thirds of the world population, with the speed and scale of urbanisation set to lock in high-carbon infrastructure and inequality if we do not act now.
The UK’s new programme will provide invaluable support to cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America to help them grow sustainably, and make them resilient to climate risks, securing a greener future for generations to come.
The statement made by Greg Hands, the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 29 October 2021.
The Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018 enables the default tariff (price cap) on standard variable and default energy tariffs to be extended on an annual basis up to end of 2023 at the latest. These annual extensions are dependent on an assessment and statement that I make every year, by 31 October, on whether the conditions for effective competition are in place for domestic supply contracts.
I am confirming today that the price cap mechanism will remain in place for 2022 as the conditions for effective competition are not yet in place for domestic supply contracts.
As required by legislation, the independent energy regulator, Ofgem, has carried out an assessment into whether the conditions are in place for effective competition in domestic supply contracts this year. Ofgem has been transparent in how it made its assessment, and its report is clear and thorough. Ofgem assesses that these conditions have not been met and recommends that the price cap mechanism should be extended.
The level of the price cap is a separate matter for Ofgem to determine.
The statement made by Greg Hands, the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 27 October 2021.
The Secretary of State will be using powers under the Energy Act 2013 to increase the hourly rate for use of military drivers paid by hauliers in an ESCALIN deployment.
In response to the disruption to the availability of fuel in late September, the Government deployed Operation ESCALIN, on the 27 September. ESCALIN is a long-standing fuel supply contingency measure jointly managed by my Department and the Ministry of Defence to make trained military drivers available to support fuel deliveries. A total of 222 drivers were deployed to civilian haulage companies that participate in the scheme.
It has always been the intention that the hauliers who make use of Operation ESCALIN should be required to make a contribution to the costs that is in line with the costs of employing civilian drivers, although this is below the full cost to the taxpayer of the deployment. The current charge to hauliers for the use of a military driver in an ESCALIN deployment is set at £25 per hour, per driver. This price was set in 2013 and has remained unchanged since. During this nine-year period the cost of labour has increased and I would like the price to reflect this change.
A direction under section 148(3)(b) of the Energy Act 2013 was made to increase the hourly price from £25 to £28.51. This will take effect on 28 October. I believe this direction is fair and proportionate as it will now take account of inflationary price increases from 2013 calculated using the consumer price inflation index. However, the Secretary of State reserves the right to make further changes to the charging regime if that becomes necessary.
My Department will work with hauliers to ensure that use of military personnel is continued for only as long as absolutely necessary. The Secretary of State reserves the right to withdraw military support once we are confident that the fuel supply system as a whole is adequate to meet normal demand, irrespective of the position of individual companies.
The statement made by Greg Hands, the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2021.
I am today providing an update on the UK’s CCUS cluster sequencing process which was launched in May this year. Carbon capture, usage and storage, or CCUS, will be essential to meeting our net zero ambitions and will be an exciting new industry to capture the carbon we continue to emit and revitalise the birthplaces of the first industrial revolution.
The Prime Minister’s ten-point plan established a commitment to deploy CCUS in a minimum of two industrial clusters by the mid-2020s, and four by 2030 at the latest. Our aim is to use CCUS technology to capture and store 20 to 30 MtCO2 per year by 2030, forming the foundations for future investment and potential export opportunities. CCUS will be crucial for industrial decarbonisation, low-carbon power, engineered greenhouse gas removal technologies and delivering our 5GW by 2030 low-carbon hydrogen production ambition.
Our cluster sequencing process, which has, through the CCS infrastructure fund, £1 billion to provide industry with the certainty required to deploy CCUS at pace and at scale, has completed the first phase of the evaluation of the five cluster submissions received by my Department.
I am today confirming that the Hynet and East Coast clusters have been confirmed as Track 1 clusters for the mid-2020s and will be taken forward into Track 1 negotiations. If the clusters represent value for money for the consumer and the taxpayer then subject to final decisions of Ministers, they will receive support under the Government’s CCUS programme. We are also announcing the Scottish cluster as a reserve cluster if a back-up is needed. A reserve cluster is one which met the eligibility criteria and performed to a good standard against the evaluation criteria. As such, we will continue to engage with the Scottish Cluster throughout phase 2 of the sequencing process, to ensure it can continue its development and planning. This means that if Government choose to discontinue engagement with a cluster in Track 1, we can engage with this reserve cluster instead.
Deploying CCUS will be a significant undertaking; these are new major infrastructure projects for a new sector of the economy and carry with them significant risks to deliver by the mid-2020s. Government will continue to play a role in providing long-term certainty to these projects to manage these risks and bring forward the UK’s first CCUS clusters.
We remain committed to helping all industrial clusters to decarbonise as we work to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and we are clear that CCUS will continue to play a key role in this process. Consequently, the Government continue to be committed to Track 2 enabling 10Mtpa capacity operational by 2030. This puts these places—Teesside, the Humber, Merseyside, north Wales and the north-east of Scotland—among the potential early super-places which will be transformed over the next decade.
The statement made by Greg Hands, the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2021.
With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement on the net zero strategy and the heat and buildings strategy—but first, if I may, I will congratulate my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary and his wife Harriet on the birth of their daughter on Friday. I can report to the House that both mother and baby are healthy and doing well, as is the Secretary of State. I am sure that the whole House will join me in offering our congratulations. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”]
The statement is all about future generations as well, because we know that we must act now on climate change. The activities of our economies, communities and societies are changing our environment. If we do not take action now, we will continue to see the worst effects of climate change.
We have already travelled a significant way down the path to net zero. Between 1990 and 2019, we grew our economy by 78% and cut our emissions by 44%, decarbonising faster than any other G7 country. Since 2010, the UK has quadrupled its renewable electricity generation and reduced carbon emissions in the power generation sector by some 70%. In the past year alone, we have published the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution, the energy White Paper, the North sea transition deal, the industrial decarbonisation strategy, the transport decarbonisation plan, the hydrogen strategy and more. Earlier this month, we unveiled a landmark commitment to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2035.
But there is still a substantial length of road to travel. We must continue to take decisive action if we are to meet our net zero goal, so today I am pleased to announce two major Government initiatives: the net zero strategy and the heat and buildings strategy. This is not just an environmental transition; it also represents an important economic change, echoing even the explosion in industry and exports in the first industrial revolution more than 250 years ago.
We will fully embrace this new, green industrial revolution, helping the UK to level up as we build back better and get to the front of the global race to go green. We need to capitalise on it to ensure that British industries and workers benefit. I can therefore announce that the strategy will support up to 440,000 jobs across sectors and across all parts of the UK in 2030. There will be more specialists in low-carbon fuels in Northern Ireland and low-carbon hydrogen in Sheffield, electric vehicle battery production in the north-east of England, engineers in Wales, green finance in London and offshore wind technicians in Scotland.
The strategy will harness the power of the private sector, giving businesses and industry the certainty they need to invest and grow in the UK and make the UK home to new, ambitious projects. The policies and spending brought forward in the strategy, along with regulations, will leverage up to £90 billion of private investment by 2030, levelling up our former industrial heartlands.
The strategy also clearly highlights the steps that the Government are taking to work with industry to bring down the costs of key technologies, from electric vehicles to heat pumps—just as we did with offshore wind, in which we are now the world leader. Those steps will give the UK a competitive edge and get us to the head of the race.
We have spoken often in this place of late about the importance of protecting consumers, and consumers are indeed at the heart of the strategy. Making green changes such as boosting the energy efficiency of our homes will help to cut the cost of bills for consumers across the UK. Switching to cleaner sources of energy will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and, again, bring down costs down the line.
This plan is also our best route to overcoming current challenges. The current price spikes in gas show the need to reduce our reliance on volatile imported fossil fuels rapidly. Although there is a role for gas as a transition fuel, moving away from imports quickly is in the best interests of bill payers. With our ambitious set of policies, the strategy sets out how we meet carbon budgets 4 and 5 and our nationally determined contribution. It puts us on the path for carbon budget 6 and ultimately on course for net zero by 2050.
We are now setting up the industrial decarbonisation and hydrogen revenue support scheme to fund these business models and enable the first commercial-scale deployment of low-carbon hydrogen production and industrial carbon capture. We have also announced the HyNet and East Coast clusters as track 1 economic hubs for green jobs.
We have previously announced that we will end the sale of all new non zero emission road vehicles from 2040, and the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The strategy explains that we will also introduce a zero emission vehicle mandate that will deliver on our 2030 commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans.
To increase the size of our carbon sinks, we will treble the rate at which we are planting new trees in England by the end of the current Parliament. We will be a global leader in developing and deploying the green technologies of the future. The strategy announces a £1.5 billion fund to support net zero innovation projects, which provides finance for low-carbon technologies across the areas of the Prime Minister’s “Ten Point Plan”.
We have also published our heat and buildings strategy, which sets out our plans to significantly cut carbon emissions from the UK’s 30 million homes and workplaces in a simple way that remains affordable and fair for British households. We will gradually move away from fossil fuel heating and improve the energy performance of our buildings through measures such as grants of up to £5,000 towards the costs of heat pumps, a further £800 million for the social housing decarbonisation fund to upgrade social housing, and a further £950 million for a home upgrade grant scheme to improve and decarbonise low-income homes off the gas grid.
The year 2021 is a vital year for action on climate change. In just two weeks’ time, the UK Government will host the crucial United Nations COP26 conference in Glasgow. As the Prime Minister has said, it needs to be a “turning point for humanity”, the point at which we pull together—and pull our socks up—to keep 1.5 °C in reach. Hosting COP26 will also give the UK a huge opportunity to showcase our world-leading climate credentials and set an example to other countries to raise their own ambitions. The net zero strategy will take centre stage in our display, setting out our vision for a UK that is cleaner, greener, and more innovative.
Mr Speaker, we are ready for Glasgow, and I commend this statement to the House.
The statement made by Greg Hands, the Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 18 October 2021.
A year on from the publication of the ten point plan the Government can confirm more than £5.8 billion of investment in green projects has been secured, along with at least 56,000 jobs in the UK’s clean industries.
This major green investment boost helps to drive forward the Government’s ambitions to make the UK a global leader in green technology and finance. It includes more than £650 million in advancing offshore wind this year alone, supporting almost 3,600 jobs across the Humber and North-East, and over £900 million in accelerating the shift to zero emissions vehicles. As part of this Envision AESC will invest over £400 million in battery manufacturing, for example, as part of a £1 billion project with Nissan and Sunderland Council to create a flagship electric vehicle hub. ENI Spa has invested more than £400 million in offshore wind.
This week’s global investment summit in London is expected to attract almost 200 leading industry figures from around the world to invest in the best of UK green business and innovation. Securing private investment for clean technology is a core part of the Government’s strategy to meet our world-leading emissions reductions targets over the next decade and achieve net zero by 2050. Our upcoming net zero strategy, to be published this week, builds on the Ten Point Plan, setting out how we will deliver on our net zero commitments, giving businesses the certainty they need to invest.
Further progress since the ten point plan includes:
Securing around £1.5 billion of investment into our offshore wind industry, supported by the Government’s £160 million scheme to upgrade ports and infrastructure. Renewables now represent almost 40% of the UK’s total electricity generation.
Kicking off the biggest-ever round of our flagship renewable energy scheme for low carbon electricity—contracts for difference—with £200 million for offshore wind projects and £24 million for floating offshore wind.
Publishing the hydrogen strategy to grow the UK hydrogen economy, consulting on design of the £240 million net zero hydrogen fund, and announcing funding of seven real-world hydrogen transport pilots.
Committing £20 million to increase on-street charge points for electric vehicles and providing £50 million to support charge point installations.
Publishing our transport decarbonisation plan and national bus strategy, as well as supporting Coventry to become UK’s first all-electric bus city and consulting on world-leading pledge to end the sale of all new, polluting road vehicles by 2040 and net zero aviation emissions by 2050. This is on top of more than 300 new walking and cycling schemes.
Providing £1 billion to upgrade schools, hospitals, and council buildings with energy efficiency measures and committing £222 million to upgrade socially rented homes. Local Authorities through the Green Homes Grant scheme have also started installing upgrades to around 50,000 low-income households.
Announcing £19.5 million of grant funding for UK projects developing novel carbon capture technology and we have kicked off the process to decide the first carbon capture cluster locations in our industrial heartlands.
Launching the floods investment programme that is on track to better protect 336,000 properties.
Awarding 90 projects under the second round of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, totalling £80 million of investment, and launched several schemes under the Nature for Climate Fund to expand our pipeline of tree planting projects in England.
Launching the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, providing funding for low-carbon technologies and systems across the areas of the ten point plan.
Launching our landmark North sea transition deal and industrial decarbonisation strategy.
The speech made by Greg Hands, the Clean Growth and Climate Change Minister, on 29 September 2021.
I am delighted to join you here today at Global Offshore Wind to deliver my first live speech since taking up my exciting new role as Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change Minister.
Having been recently Trade Minister, it’s appropriate that we’re meeting here on the Royal Victoria Dock – a symbol of our rich trading history, exporting goods across the world. The UK has long been a seafaring nation, creating prosperity through our ability to navigate the high seas.
Fast forward to the 21st century and we are, once again, using our maritime expertise, to create economic growth, while providing clean power for our homes, and boosting coastal communities.
We are now only 32 days away from the start of COP26, where we will look to accelerate global action, to tackle the climate crisis.
It’s no exaggeration to say offshore wind will be a linchpin in our efforts to reach net zero.
Last year, the Prime Minister set out his ambitious 10-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. It’s no coincidence that Offshore Wind took prime position in his vision.
Whilst I may be new to this position, as Minister for Energy and Climate Change, I am not new to offshore wind. I have long been an ardent enthusiast in government and beyond.
As Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2015, we moved the parameters of pending, and the CfD process, decisively, in favour of offshore wind.
And as Trade Minister since 2016, I have always pushed the sectors export capability, whether in Taiwan, Korea, or Vietnam, and attracting foreign direct investment.
And I am personally thrilled to see that our country has the world’s largest installed offshore wind capacity.
And not content with being world number 1, we are projecting a quadrupling of that capacity within just 10 years.
I want to highlight a few of these areas where we have been working together to push forward deployment.
This morning we published the Joint Government and Sector Task Force’s ‘Strategy and Implementation Plan’, outlining the first interim solutions for the mitigation of interference with military radar.
This will inform projects bidding into this year’s Contracts for Difference round, providing confidence on how deployment can co-exist, with military radar.
Our next generation radar innovation competition has been a huge success, and is ready to move to phase 2.
The standard of applications to this phase was so high, that we are increasing the funding available, awarding £3.8 million to 7 projects this month. When this phase completes in early 2023, BEIS will have invested £5.9 million in developing next-generation radar technologies.
Acceleration of offshore wind deployment needs to be environmentally sustainable, and my department is working with DEFRA, The Crown Estate and the Offshore Wind Industry Council, to gain a greater understanding of the impacts of deployment, and find strategic solutions to manage and mitigate them. And I know my colleague Rebecca Pow will be speaking later, about the work we have been doing together, to ensure that deployment is sustainable and protects the marine environment.
We are cooperating right across Whitehall to focus on delivery – I am looking forward to working through the new Ministerial Delivery Group, to determine how we can address the tensions between our decarbonisation, economic and environmental protection ambitions, and develop a truly strategic vision, of how to prioritise activities within the sea-space.
This sits alongside the work being done by government on reform of the National Planning Policy Statements, and Project Accelerate.
To enable this large increase in offshore wind, we need the right infrastructure ready, and in place. And we need to ensure that local economies and communities benefit from offshore wind, while mitigating any disruption.
The Offshore Transmission Network Review is looking at how we can reach our wind targets, while reducing the environmental and local costs associated with offshore wind infrastructure.
In the near term, we are working with a number of developers through our Early Opportunities workstream on potential Pathfinder projects, delivering early coordination. And we are keen to see high ambition and strong cooperation between developers to maximise benefits.
For the longer term, we are moving towards a more strategic approach and yesterday, we published a consultation on high-level approaches to an Enduring Regime, and will use the responses to develop detailed policy proposals. I’m looking forward to discussing this with many of you.
Ensuring that we make the most of the broader economic benefits from offshore wind deployment, as part of our Green Industrial Revolution, is a critical part of our strategy.
In March we announced £95 million of government investment for two major offshore wind ports, the Able Marine Energy Park on Humberside and the Teesworks Offshore Manufacturing Centre on Teesside.
We are also investing in manufacturing – building or extending facilities which will create thousands of jobs in the UK. I was delighted to visit Hartlepool, yesterday, no coincidence that my first ministerial visit was to see offshore wind, to announce JDR Cables investment in a new state-of-the-art high-voltage subsea cable facility to be built in Blyth, referred to by Dan. This is the 6th manufacturing facility that we have provided grant funding to, just this year. Alongside the 2 dedicated offshore wind ports we have supported, that represents £1.5 billion of investment securing and creating up to 3,600 jobs with:
Siemens Gamesa
GRI Renewable Industries
Seah Wind
Smulders Projects UK Ltd at Wallsend
GE Renewables
We are absolutely committed to backing the development of the sector across the whole of the UK, and the supply chain, for both fixed bottom, and floating, offshore wind. And they highlight our status as an attractive destination for inward investment, and a leading hub for the offshore wind supply chain.
Floating wind will become increasingly important to help us meet both Carbon Budget 6 and net zero.
I am excited to see how many new floating wind projects will be brought forward by Crown Estate Scotland’s ‘ScotWind’ leasing process and The Crown Estate’s planned leasing round, in the Celtic Sea.
Building a strong UK-based floating infrastructure and supply chain will allow us to deploy here and to capitalise on a growing export market. Our 1GW by 2030 target for floating wind is a steppingstone to a much greater scale deployment in the 2030s.
That’s why we have proposed a minimum of £24 million in the next Contract for Difference auction for floating wind.
We are also supporting innovation projects up to a total cost of £20 million over 4 years, delivering cost reduction and innovative floating wind demonstration projects. We will announce winners in the coming weeks.
I am also pleased to announce that BEIS has joined the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, which I was also able to visit yesterday. BEIS is providing the Centre with £2 million over 4 years to further accelerate innovation in the UK’s floating wind sector.
I am so impressed with how far the offshore wind sector has come in just a short time.
As we drive forward to 2030, Carbon Budget 6 and net zero, there are even greater opportunities. We’re working to ensure the UK can continue to lead the way in delivering offshore wind. I am excited about this, and I know you will be too. Thank you.