Energy in the future

24 February 2022

Today, and coincidentally on the same day that Russian forces invaded Ukraine, the Climate Change Committee published a letter it has sent to the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, on the subject of licensing future oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. 

The committee is an independent body that advises the government on emissions targets and on adapting to the impact of climate change. 

Interestingly, the CCC said that the evidence against providing consents for new domestic production was “not clear-cut” and, while advocating tighter limits, it stopped short of advocating an outright ban. 

Lord Deben, the committee chair, said that “we recognise that there are additional important considerations, such as energy security.” 

The recent spike in global energy prices has focused minds on the availability of fuel, heightened further by the Ukraine conflict and the potential disruption to supplies throughout Europe. 

The CCC states that “any increases in UK extraction of oil and gas would have, at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future”. However, the issue is probably as much about availability as affordability. 

As the blog has said frequently, we are going to need a wide range of fuel options on the path to net zero in hire. 

While emphasis will increasingly be placed on renewables-based energy sources, the need for diesel – particularly for powering heavy, high work-rate machinery – will remain for some time yet. 

As well as electric and battery powered equipment, manufacturers and suppliers have been busy developing products running on diesel producing very low levels of emissions, which should help to smooth the transition. 

And given the uncertainties surrounding the developing Ukrainian situation, the need to maintain domestic energy supplies has surely seldom been greater.