On 6th June, Kwasi led a debate on Government policy to reach Net Zero by 2050.
In his opening speech, Kwasi said ‘This is a matter of great interest to me personally. I was fortunate to be appointed Energy Minister…… in July 2019, only a few weeks after we as a Government had passed the net zero Bill and enshrined the 2050 net zero target in law. That target was not simply plucked out of thin air. It is based on a scientific assessment of what we need to do as a global community to keep average temperature increases on this planet below 1.5° compared with 1990.’
During the debate, Kwasi outlined the areas where the Government has already been successful, such as in the decarbonisation of our power system, and the areas where there is still more to do. Kwasi stressed that decarbonising domestic heat is one of the UK’s biggest challenges in realising net zero, and argued that further research and deployment of hydrogen will be essential to tackle this issue, given our housing stock’s overwhelming reliance on natural gas.
Kwasi specifically thanked Talking Tree, whose climate emergency centre in Staines has promoted decarbonisation in Spelthorne, and his constituent who raised these issues with Kwasi in constituency surgeries and provided him with the motivation for requesting this important debate. Kwasi is also grateful to the many organisations who contacted him with relevant research and briefings ahead of the debate.
You can watch the full debate here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/1c403cda-a022-4ae7-a903-2328eb0f4751?in=16:29:34.
