32m ago
09.23 BST
Grant Shapps says it would be 'irresponsible' not
to grant new oil and gas licences
Nicola
Slawson
Grant Shapps has said it would be “irresponsible” not
to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and insisted the UK will
“still meet our net zero targets”.
The energy
security secretary told Times Radio that the North Sea basin is very mature and
is “effectively running out”.
He said:
The IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) says that in order to meet the
goals of 1.5% (degrees Celsius), no more than 1.5% warming, we would need to
reduce by 4% a year the amount of oil and gas.
We are,
even with these licences, on a trajectory to reduce by 7% a year because we’re
running out of oil and gas in the North Sea.
So, you can
see that having these licences is entirely compatible with and actually
irresponsible not to grant them if we’re going to both secure the energy
security of British homes and businesses, but also get to net zero.
So, it’s a
very sensible, rational thing for us to be doing.
He told GB
News that he is meeting with energy companies “who are going to invest £100
billion in renewables” at No 10 today.
He said:
Everyone
supports this country’s transition to net zero but we cannot get there by
telling people ‘we’re simply going to stop using oil and gas’.
The only
way to do that would be to tell people ‘don’t put your gas boiler on, don’t
drive a petrol car’, and do that almost instantaneously.
Unless you
do that, what you’re really saying is ‘we’re not going to dig our own oil and
gas, we’ll import instead’.
Yes, we’ll
have more oil and gas licences, but we’ll still meet our net zero targets
because we’re also massively investing in all these renewables as well.
Shapps
denied the government has not been doing anything to boost UK energy security.
He said:
We’ve been
moving very fast. This is just the latest round of investment into renewables
by some of the very biggest energy companies in the land.
I will be looking
after the politics blog today. If you have any tips or suggestions, please get
in touch: nicola.slawson@theguardian.com
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