Examination of Witnesses (Questions 435-439)
MALCOLM WICKS
AND MR
PAUL MCINTYRE
10 OCTOBER 2006
Q435 Chairman: Minister, welcome to this
evidence session in our continuing investigation into the Government's
Energy Review. We are very grateful to you for coming so soon
after the summer recess to update us. I should like to apologise
to everyone in the room for the crowded nature of today's meeting.
The Commons authorities have seen fit to put us in rather a smaller
room than we needed and I apologise for that. We have a lot of
ground to cover so I am encouraging my colleagues on the Committee
to ask short questions and, Minister, I would encourage you to
be as brief as is commensurate with accuracy in your replies,
if that is possible. I should also like just to make clear what
structure we are following in our question session. We are beginning
with some wider policy questions about the context of the Energy
Review then moving to reducing demand issues by looking at carbon
trading, then on to the nuclear question, new nuclear build then
moving to fossil fuels at that stage; and ending with a session
on distributed generation and microgeneration, local energy and
power. That is the structure and I hope that helps. Welcome, Minister.
May I ask you to introduce your colleague?
Malcolm Wicks: I am joined by
Paul McIntyre who is the director of our Energy Review team. I
shall certainly have regard to your stricture to be brief in my
answers, particularly for the more difficult questions. May I
say that we published the outcome of the Energy Review back in
July—on 11 July? The purpose of the review was to address
a range of questions but in particular two major challenges facing
us in the 21st century: one, climate change or global warming
and the second, energy supply and—I think the term is justified—energy
security. We are now going through a period of consultation on
a range of important and specific matters, so that process is
underway. In due course we shall be publishing a White Paper on
energy policy.
Q436 Chairman: That is helpful; thank
you. We look forward to that White Paper sometime in the New Year
I believe.
Malcolm Wicks: Sometime next year.
Q437 Chairman: Sometime next year;
before the summer recess anyhow. May I just put it to you that
this document, the original document on which the review was based,
is really about electricity generation? It is about keeping the
lights on first and foremost, the second half of what you alluded
to in your opening remarks. It is even true of the follow-up document
that overwhelmingly it is about electricity generation. There
are sections on the contribution that domestic space and water
heating can make but relatively brief sections. Was it not a very
heavily skewed consultation?
Malcolm Wicks: I do not think
so. We were looking at both demand and supply issues. There are
very strong statements there about energy efficiency. Indeed we
would go further in the housing sector and say we should stop
talking about energy efficiency in a slightly woolly way and start
to talk about energy reduction in the housing sector and therefore
the reduction in carbon emissions and how we can bring that about.
On heating it is crucial. I think some 30% of carbon emissions
are from the heating we use. At present most of us rely on gas
supplies for our domestic heating. There are issues about gas
supply but that has proved efficient and reliable. In the Energy
Review we talk about the need for us to do more work on combined
heat and power, which is a technology which has a lot of advantages
and which we see in other countries and in other ways in terms
of microgeneration; some of the microgeneration is about the production
of heat. It is something we are very aware of.
Q438 Chairman: Was this first document
not really about the Prime Minister's wish to get nuclear sorted
out? Was this not the real purpose of this first document?
Malcolm Wicks: No and I am surprised
you put it that way. We were always concerned to conduct an holistic
review of energy policy with some strong statements in the review
report about demand and efficiency.
Q439 Chairman: I know that numbers
are not everything, but we reckon that 45 of the 73 pages in this
document are about electricity generation and in the final document
there are really only six or seven pages on domestic contribution.
It is still overwhelmingly about electricity, is it not?
Malcolm Wicks: Much of it is about
electricity of course, but it is not all about electricity. We
have some things to say about transport and you will be seeing
more on that from the Government in the future.
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