Speeches by Miliband.

“I am convinced that we can do it. It is important to net zero, but I am convinced we can do it. Maybe we will come on to this. We have to do clean power by 2030 and we have to do lots of other things as well to deliver our carbon budgets. It is interesting that electricity demand will only grow, something like 50% by 2…”

“Yes. I am absolutely convinced of that. We set a deliberately stretching target. It is partly based on my experience. It goes back to some of the conversations we had earlier. Setting a target a long way away does not exactly increase the pressure to deliver. This has a massive virtue because it is driving progress thr…”

“They are right that it is hard. It is hard. It is interesting that when we came to office, there was no plan for clean power, never mind by 2030, by 2050. We are taking a different approach. To be brief on this, we are setting out how much of each power source we need, which is set out in the clean power action plan. T…”

“Yes.”

“No. The truth is it is moving at speed. That is what we have tried to do since we came to office: lifting the onshore wind ban, consenting all the solar, the renewables auction, the clean power action plan. All those are about speeding this up. It is interesting, in contrast to Cornwall Insight, that two years ago indu…”

“We run both limbs of the mission out of our Department. I want to be absolutely clear in case it is not clear that that is absolutely the case. It is also the case—and I know you understand this—that we rely on working with lots of other parts of Government. I will be frank with you. We are co-operating fantastically. …”

“The danger is less duplication and more silos. The clean power Mission Control is good because it brings together all the work in my Department that is relevant to clean power. Then we are also well served by the mission boards. I chair the mission board for our mission. The deputy chair is the Chancellor of the Duchy …”

“I am responsible for delivering clean power by 2030. I lead the mission. It is the first limb of the five missions of the Prime Minister. I am accountable to him for delivering this. Within our Department, we have set up an important body, Mission Control, led by Chris Stark, who was chief executive of the Climate Chan…”

“You do value brevity but let me be not so brief. The NESO, the National Energy System Operator, provided us independent advice saying that it is really hard. Of course the 2030 clean power is hard. If it was easy, the last Government might have done it. It is hard and it is challenging but it is doable and it is absolu…”

“Let me be a bit more expansive than that.”

“No.”

“I will not get ahead of any announcements that might or might not be made, but I want to give you very strong reassurance that the Government’s position is very clear. It goes back to the conversation that we had earlier. Aviation expansion, if it happens, where it happens, must be justified by reference to carbon budg…”

“That is a specific question about the pathway of aviation emissions and that depends on a whole range of factors, as you will know, including the use of sustainable aviation fuel, airport efficiency and what other decisions are made. However, I want to provide reassurance, because you made an important point. Carbon bu…”

“We have a range of mechanisms to make sure that any aviation expansion is consistent with our carbon budgets. I think that we agree about this; it may not look like it. Any aviation expansion must be justified within the framework of carbon budgets. I can absolutely assure you that that is the position of the Governmen…”

“The Climate Change Committee’s progress report said that no airport expansion should take place without a UK-wide capacity management framework. I agree with the CCC, and I want to be absolutely clear about this, that any aviation expansion must be accounted for as part of carbon budgets. On its balanced pathway was a …”

“Let me answer this carefully, because it is important, and I will go into a bit of detail on this if I may. This is the heart of the matter on one of the most important issues on aviation. The way that I have always thought about this is that our goal is neither on the one hand to stop people going on holiday or stop t…”

“Yes, but let’s get to the truth here, which is that the last Government set the targets and then did not do the work. We have come to office—and I am glad that we have got on to this—with only one-third of the reductions necessary covered by credible plans, according to the CCC. I will be honest with you that we face a…”

“I think that there should definitely be a debate in the House. To give a bit of clarity, my understanding about this last time is that the Government put down an SI proposing carbon budget 6 and we supported it and it went through. The last Government got themselves into a slightly odd position in that they blamed the …”

“Let me come back to the Committee on the precise chronologies, but I definitely commit to coming back before this Committee to discuss our proposals.”

“Sorry, just explain what you mean by before laying it. Before laying what?”