Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee

Recommendation 33

4th Report - Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels and securing energy supplies Published 5 Jan 2023 Paragraph 192

Environmental Audit Committee Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels and securing energy supplies All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Recommendation (the committee's words)

The emissions targets currently set under the North Sea Transition Deal are not stretching enough. The Climate Change Committee suggests that it is feasible and necessary for oil and gas production emissions to be reduced by 68% by 2030. We agree. The oil and gas industry has been aware of the contribution of its activities to man-made climate change since the 1990s, or earlier. A responsible industry should have been working to clean up its operations with far greater urgency than this timescale suggests. The Government needs to push the industry to go further and faster than its current approach. Challenging targets for the industry to undergo rapid decarbonisation must be introduced without delay. The fossil fuel industry should not be granted headroom in the UK’s carbon budgets that other hard to decarbonise sectors may need. We recommend that the North Sea Transition Deal be modified to include stronger targets and verification arrangements in line with the Government’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

From: Environmental Audit Committee, 4th Report - Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels and securing energy supplies (HC 109), paragraph 192, 5 January 2023

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 23 March 2023 (deadline 5 March 2023).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the Committee's report and responds mainly by pointing to existing schemes, targets and planned consultations, while declining several recommendations, including a tax allowance for renewable generators and ringfencing Energy Profits Levy revenue for energy efficiency.

On renewable generators' tax relief, it states it "does not accept this recomsmendation" [sic], citing support through Contracts for Difference. On the Energy Profits Levy, it has "considerable fiscal sustainability concerns" about hypothecating revenue for energy efficiency.
On green mortgages, it agrees lenders have "an important role to play" but will publish a response only once policy is "resolved", giving no date. It intends to consult on Energy Performance Certificate and wider buildings framework reforms in 2023.
On the North Sea, it considers the Transition Deal targets "sufficiently ambitious" and says it does "not propose reopening this deal for negotiation", though it will monitor progress closely, including whether "further steps may be necessary".
On energy efficiency funding, it points to £6.6 billion this Parliament and £6 billion of new funding "from 2025 to 2028". It intends to launch ECO+ in spring 2023, "proposed to be worth £1 billion over three years".

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