Labour seeks RE target updates

Labour has tabled Energy Bill amendments that if passed would require the Energy Secretary to report to Parliament every six months on how policy changes affect the UK’s 2020 EU renewables target.

The amendments moved by shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead would force Amber Rudd and future energy secretaries to update on how the early closure of the Renewables Obligation to onshore wind and any other renewables policy changes affect the UK’s ability to comply with the target.

The six-monthly would include an estimate of the cost to the taxpayer should the UK not comply with the 2020 EU renewable target.

Whitehead also tabled an amendment that would require a Contracts for Difference allocation round to be held no less than annually in each year in which the UK is not on target to meet the 2020 EU renewable energy target.

SNP energy spokesman Callum McCaig meanwhile laid an amendment to the Energy Bill seeking to devolve control of the CfD scheme in Scotland to the Scottish Parliament.

Energy minister Andrea Leadsom has meanwhile tabled an amendment that would remove a Labour clause passed in the Lords that would prevent carbon units from the EU Emissions Trading System being credited to or debited from the UK carbon account after 2027.

The provision would have altered the regulation-making powers for prescribing the basis for calculating how a carbon budget is being met from the start of the fifth carbon budget.

The Energy Bill had its second reading in the Commons on Monday. The government has yet to announce when the Energy Bill will move to committee stage.

Image: UK Parliament (FreeImages)