After warning Liz Truss against removing the fracking embargo despite the energy crisis, the government’s climate change czar received a stern warning that he must “live in the real world.”
Lord Deben advised her to concentrate on renewable energy sources instead, claiming that legalizing fracking would have little effect on energy rates.
After promising to act during the leadership contest, the Prime Minister is expected to lift the restriction on the gas extraction technique today.
However, Lord Deben, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, cautioned the PM yesterday that focusing more on renewable energy sources rather than increasing domestic production was the best approach to address the energy situation.
Lord Deben said approving fracking would have no impact on energy prices – and urged her to focus on renewables instead
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There is no sliver of a cigarette paper between the fact that if you want to deal with climate change and you want to deal with the cost of living crisis and oil and gas prices you have to do the same things – renewable energy and energy efficiency –they are the answers.
‘If you want energy bills down, you produce your energy in the cheapest possible way. That happens to be by renewables.’
But last night Craig Mackinlay, part of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Tory MPs, who question the cost of meeting the Government’s climate targets, said: ‘Lord Deben and his Climate Change Committee need to come out of their ivory towers and live in the real world. We are facing an energy cost and supply emergency. It is time we unleashed the full potential of all sources of domestically derived power. Fracking could play a huge role in this. The best time for a UK energy policy would have been ten years ago. The second best time is now.’
On Tuesday, Lord Deben and Sir John Armitt, who is chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, urged Miss Truss to retain the UK’s commitment to deliver a green, decarbonised power system by 2035.
The Prime Minister is set to end the ban on the gas extraction method today, after pledging to take action during the leadership campaign
Both figures suggested the size of the nation’s gas reserves – whether offshore or from shale – ‘are too small to impact meaningfully the prices faced by UK consumers’.
During the Tory leadership campaign, Miss Truss suggested fracking could bolster the UK’s energy security and wean the country off Russian fuels.
She said: ‘It’s also very important we use the resources in the North Sea. I support exploring fracking in parts of the United Kingdom. We will end the effective ban on extracting our huge reserves of shale gas by fracking but be led by science, setting out a plan to ensure communities benefit.’
Today Miss Truss will set out her energy support strategy, with help on bills and the expansion of domestic supply expected to be announced.
Lord faced scrutiny over work with green companies
By Lewis Pennock for the Daily Mail
Lord Deben, who is chairman of the independent Committee on Climate Change, has previously faced scrutiny for his private work with ‘green’ firms.
The peer – formerly Tory environment secretary John Gummer – is also chair of environmental consultancy firm Sancroft International.
He was cleared after a conflict of interest probe in 2019 over £600,000 paid by clients of Sancroft which allegedly stood to profit from his advice to ministers.
The Mail on Sunday revealed at least nine businesses and campaign groups made payments to Sancroft International Ltd – some running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The peer had always declared the fact he owns and is chairman of Sancroft to the House of Lords register and the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), but he never identified its clients. He has always denied any conflict of interest.
In February, The Daily Telegraph reported that Sancroft was contracted to work for the Qatari government. Qatar accounts for nearly half of Britain’s gas imports.
The CCC wrote to then-business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggesting ministers support a ‘tighter limit on production’ of oil and gas and favour imports.
Lord Deben, 82, told the Telegraph: ‘There can be no conflict of interest in advising people everywhere that sustainability demands that they move away from fossil fuels.’
In 1990, while he was minister of agriculture, he famously fed his daughter a beefburger to reassure the public during the mad cow disease crisis.