I share your concern about the use of fossil fuels and tackling climate change is a priority for me. 

The publication of the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution lays the blueprint for how we can achieve net zero and, further, the Energy White Paper made clear the Government’s commitment to clean energy sources. 

We cannot simply pull the plug on all fossil fuels overnight without this having a huge consequences all over Europe. However, the Government is going to make better use of the oil and gas in the UK by giving the energy fields of the North Sea a new lease of life. You may also welcome that between 1990 and 2019 the UK decarbonised faster than any other country in the G7.

As we transition to clean energy, there will still be some role for fossil fuels in the medium term. However, this is not sustainable in the long term and I am glad that steps have been taken to speed up the transition, including the commitment to decarbonise the UK's electricity system by 2035. The Energy White Paper and the Energy Security Strategy set out the Government’s future plans for the oil and gas sector. This includes transforming the UK Continental Shelf, the areas of the sea bed and subsoil beyond the territorial sea over which the UK exercises sovereign rights of exploration and exploitation of natural resources, to be a net zero basin by 2050.

In addition, the North Sea Transition Deal creates new business opportunities, jobs and skills as the oil and gas sector works to transition to clean, green energy. I am encouraged that the Government will provide opportunities for oil and gas companies to repurpose their operations away from unabated fossil fuels to abatement technologies such as Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) with further commitments on this announced in the recent Budget, or clean energy production such as hydrogen.

The deal goes further and includes interim targets, such as a 10 per cent reduction in emissions by 2025, 25 per cent by 2027 and 50 per cent by 2030. It also supports up to 40,000 UK supply chain jobs in decarbonising UK Continental Shelf production and the CCUS and hydrogen sectors. 

Ultimately, the Government is clear that the licensing of domestic oil and gas exploration and production must continue to be compatible with our climate change ambitions. There can be no ‘return to normal’ due to the context of the UK’s net zero recovery. Oil and gas companies are already responding positively to this challenge. For example, Shell is investing in CCUS technology which seeks to capture CO2 from a gas plant and transport it by pipeline into depleted oil and gas reservoirs in the North Sea. 

 While the Government has been clear that it is working hard to drive down demand for fossil fuels, there ultimately will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming years. This has been recognised by the independent Climate Change Committee.