Examination of Witnesses (Questions 256
- 259)
WEDNESDAY 20 JANUARY 2010 (morning)
MR ROBERT
ASQUITH, MS
GAYNOR HARTNELL,
MS GEMMA
GRIMES AND
MR PETER
MADIGAN
Q256 Chairman:
Good morning. Could I welcome Robert Asquith, Gaynor Hartnell,
Peter Madigan and Gemma Grimes. You are very welcome. The NPSs
have been published. Do you think they are broadly in a form that
the Department could adopt?
Ms Grimes: Yes. We believe that
they are in a good state to be taken forward. They are well developed.
We have a couple of points of detail that we will bring out in
our formal consultation response to the Department of Energy.
We would just like to say that we feel that the need for renewable
energy, the detail of the Government's ambitions on renewable
energy, might be better expressed.
Ms Hartnell: Broadly speaking,
the Renewable Energy Association shares that view, that they should
be adopted, with the caveat that the need is not adequately expressed.
It should be far more robustly expressed. We are disappointed
that the guidance does not cover a wider range of technologies
and we feel in this particular version it should signal that the
next iteration will contain a wider range of technologies. There
are a few details we will send in to the Committee where we feel
it ought to be changed, one of them being that we do not want
to see the IPC being able to refuse a consent if it believes that
the Environment Agency would have cause to not issue a consent.
We do not think that is right.
Q257 Chairman:
The new technologies that you are concerned about, would they
be around biofuels?
Ms Hartnell: The vast bulk of
renewable energy projects are going to be coming in at under 50
megawatts on the electricity side, and indeed the renewable energy
target we are striving to meet, of 15 per cent of total energy
by 2020 is not just about electricity anyway. There is a huge
expansion needed in heat, transport fuels and biomethane to grid.
Really there is a great need for efficiency across the whole decision-making
spectrum for renewables, the Town and Country Planning regime
as well. Admittedly, the guidance was not written with that objective
in mind, but we would like to have seen it have some bearing on
bringing efficiency into the process for the Town and Country
Planning regime. We believe it could have been written with that
objective in mind and we would like to see it fulfil that role
in the future.
Mr Asquith: One of the areas on
which would like to see greater clarity is the relationship between
the NPSs and the Town and Country Planning system.
Q258 Chairman:
We are going to come to that, Robert. Have a think about that
one and we will be there in a minute. People have mentioned the
IPC. Is there sufficient robustness in this statement to allow
the IPC to make sensible decisions?
Mr Madigan: From BWEA's perspective,
we would like to see that statement made as strong as possible,
and also greater clarity given to the weight which that statement
carries. The Government has clearly set out its renewable energy
policy and that needs to be communicated to the IPC. From the
perspective of offshore wind, 8 January saw the announcement of
a third round for offshore wind, and in order to deliver that
large capacity of renewable energy we need a clear statement of
the Government's ambition in the NPS.
Ms Hartnell: One cannot over-emphasise
that enough. We have an excellent history in this country, unfortunately,
of setting renewables targets and then missing them. We have to
stop that. We have these mandatory targets now and we need to
change things around.
Q259 Chairman:
One of the things people have said to us is that the Overarching
Policy Statement does not say anything new really, that it is
a bit thin. Is that a fair criticism?
Ms Grimes: We believe it could
state the urgency of climate change and the corresponding need
for renewable energy more clearly. In the summary of the Government's
Energy and Climate Change Objectives at EN-1 there is no reference
to the EU 2020 targets and further down that section no reference
to the binding target to cut emissions prior to 2050. It talks
about the need to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but there
are further goals along that route to reduce carbon emissions
sooner rather than later and that could be brought out much more
in the Overarching Energy Statement.
Chairman: Let us turn to the question
of establishment of need.
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