Earlier this week, the Second Reading of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill was postponed due to an Urgent Question on Israel and Gaza, and several statements including one on the Horizon Post Office scandal. The ‘Oil and Gas’ Bill is crucial to the UK’s energy security, and I anticipate the Government will bring the Bill back to the House of Commons very shortly. There are mixed feelings locally about issuing new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, but the reality is oil and gas must remain part of our energy supply in the coming decades.
We need to keep our economy growing and our homes warm, so we should make the most of our own oil and gas. However, since 2010, the Government has increased the amount of power we generate from renewable sources from 7 per cent in 2010 to nearly 50 per cent today. There is still more to do, and the Government is ramping up offshore wind, with already five of the largest offshore windfarms in the world in UK waters. The Government is pushing ahead with nuclear, emerging technologies including fusion energy, and solar. Our national electric grid infrastructure is being reformed to supply the renewable energy to where it is needed. Despite the drive towards renewable energy, the independent Climate Change Committee data shows that the UK will still need oil and gas for a significant proportion of our energy needs even as we reach Net Zero. This means that there must be a balance between oil and gas production and use and protecting our environment.
I have focused my campaigning as regards climate change mitigation, not on electric cars or pushing people into buying heat pumps, but on the Government investing more (and facilitating private sector investment) into nature-based solutions – to unleash the power of nature by restoring it. Nature-based solutions offer cost-effective mitigation and adaptation to climate change whilst also providing benefits to people and wildlife. Safeguarding biodiversity is fundamental for climate-resilient societal development. Conservation, protection and restoration of land, freshwater, coastal and ocean ecosystems, together with targeted management to adapt to unavoidable impacts of climate change, reduces the vulnerability of biodiversity to climate change and benefits us all now and into the future.
Even G20 finance ministers have recognised that nature-based solutions are the most cost-effective, more effective and sustainable investment to protect and restore the planet – to store and capture carbon, but it is also recognised that globally nature-based solutions receive a very small percentage, around 2.5%, of public climate mitigating funding.
The UK Government has already taken several initiatives to restore nature and improve the environment. The Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 outlines the government’s commitment to creating new wildlife habitats, restoring nature, and enhancing environmental quality. The plan builds on the 25 Year Environment Plan and incorporates new powers and duties from the Environment Act, Agriculture Act, and Fisheries Act. Some key actions include tree planting and peat restoration, for example.
The UK has committed to reversing loss of nature by 2030, and to investing £3bn in natural solutions to fight climate change over the next five years. As chair of both the All Party Parliamentary Group for Coastal Communities and for the Ocean, I am especially delighted with the Government’s commitment at COP 28 to marine biodiversity and nature restoration. This includes new funding to restore marine biodiversity with £60 million of investment for Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN), a seven-year competitive grants programme as part of the flagship £500 million Blue Planet Fund. The OCEAN Grant Programme offers a vital path to ocean recovery and for local communities and nature to thrive side by side. A further £12.5 million has been committed towards PROBLUE, the World Bank’s multi-donor trust fund, through the Blue Planet Fund to support the blue economy and sustainable ocean sectors in developing countries. An additional £640,000 will be dedicated to support the vital restoration of iconic saltmarsh and seagrass habitats in England.
The UK is already a world leader on nature and climate and this Government is going even further to protect and restore nature - both at home and around the world because this gives the balance we need to thrive.