This Wednesday in Westminster, I’m chairing an event on 100% renewable energy, organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change.

This coincides with the final days of the Paris climate talks, where a growing number of countries are demanding a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050.  Real leadership and ambition is coming from nations that are most vulnerable to climate impacts - and, understandably, young people.

Here in the UK, despite our vast renewable energy resources, the political debate is lagging behind.  Worse still, Goverment policy is in reverse, with Ministers taking a wrecking ball to clean energy policies since the election.

There’s an urgent need to challenge the UK’s miserable lack of ambition on harnessing home-grown renewable sources of heat and power.  We should be going all out for 100% renewable energy - and reaching that goal well before 2050. The economic and employment benefits would be huge - never mind the improvements to energy security.

Crucially, renewable energy is the route to energy democracy too - where power is transferred to people and communities, ending the dominance of the big six energy companies.

And the science shows that we will only secure a safe climate by leaving the vast majority of existing fossil fuels in the ground. Thankfully, as the saying goes, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.

That’s why I’m looking forward to Wednesday’s panel discussion. It’s a cross-party event and all parliamentarians are welcome.

Please invite your MP to come along, if you think they could benefit from finding out more from leading businesses, entrepreneurs, academics and NGOs about the opportunities and challenges to 100% renewable energy.

The details are as follows:

9:00am – 11:00am | Wednesday, 9^th December

Committee Room 14, Palace of Westminster

Chair:

Caroline Lucas MP

Speakers:

Julia Groves – former Chief Executive Officer of the Trillion Fund

Nina Skorupska – Chief Executive, Renewable Energy Association

Prof Keith Barnham – Imperial College London

Emily Rochon – Greenpeace

This event will explore the feasibilities of the prospect of power in the UK and around the world coming from 100% renewable sources. During this seminar the panel and delegates will discuss the benefits of a 100% renewable future, how to encourage more growth in the renewables sector, as well as exploring its practical challenges including issues around storage and meeting peak demand

Yesterday I received answers to two of my recent parliamentary questions on renewables and climate change. I’ll leave you to decide on the adequacy of the Minister’s replies.

Gas Fired Power Stations: Construction

Asked by: Lucas, Caroline | Party: Green Party

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make an assessment of the effect of replacing the UK's existing coal fired power stations through a combination of energy conservation, demand side measures and renewable power instead of new gas fired power stations on (a) job creation, (b) carbon emissions, (c) household energy bills, (d) long-term energy security and (e) the UK's global influence on securing international action on climate change; and if she will make a statement.

Answering member: Andrea Leadsom | Party: Conservative Party | Department: Department for Energy and Climate Change

The Department will be launching a consultation in the spring on the closure of unabated coal fired power stations. This will include an impact assessment, and I encourage the honourable lady to examine these documents when published next year

07 Dec 2015 | Written questions | Answered | House of Commons | 18273

Date tabled: 01 Dec 2015 | Date for answer: 03 Dec 2015 | Date answered: 07 Dec 2015

Renewable Energy

Asked by: Lucas, Caroline | Party: Green Party

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the size of the (a) solar, (b) wind, (c) offshore wind and (d) renewable heat sector is; and by what proportion she plans for these sectors to grow in the next (i) five, (ii) 10 and (iii) 20 years; and if she will make a statement.

Answering member: Andrea Leadsom | Party: Conservative Party | Department: Department for Energy and Climate Change

The latest available data on the size of the low carbon sectors is published in a BIS report on 'The size and performance of the UK low carbon economy’. The report contains estimates on turnover, Gross Value Added (GVA), number of firms and number of jobs supported by various low carbon sectors. These estimates are presented in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Size of the solar, wind and renewable heat sectors in 2013

Note: Renewable heat includes the following sectors: Energy generation from waste and biomass, biomass equipment, geothermal, heat pumps, solar thermal, heat networks and alternative fuels. Some categories also include activity not relating to renewable heat. Jobs, turnover and GVA include supply chain activity.

Source: BIS (March 2015) “The Size and Performance of the UK Low Carbon Economy

Future growth in these sectors will depend upon a number of factors, such as technological development and cost reduction.

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) budget to cover both domestic and non-domestic schemes has been confirmed to March 2021, with funding rising each year to £1.15bn in 2020/21. We believe that this is sufficient to heat the equivalent of 500,000 homes. We are planning to reform the RHI with a particular view to improve value for money, reduce cost and improve cost control.

07 Dec 2015 | Written questions | Answered | House of Commons | 18271

Date tabled: 01 Dec 2015 | Date for answer: 03 Dec 2015 | Date answered: 07 Dec 2015