My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 124 in my name, but, before I do so, I will take some time to support my noble friend Lord Teverson’s Amendment 131—I will not say much else until he has had a chance to speak to it. I also support the amendment in this group in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, which would stop the issuing of new licences for fossil-fuel exploration and exploitation in the North Sea.
Amendment 124, on “flaring and venting”, follows on quite neatly from the two amendments in the previous group on energy conservation in the home. I am delighted by, and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, on, her decisive win on that issue. The Government ought to have grasped that low-hanging fruit with both hands already, and flaring and venting in the North Sea is more low-hanging fruit that the Government have failed to grasp. It too could use energy that we already generate in a much more effective and efficient manner. A ban on oil and gas flaring and venting in the North Sea is the single most effective action that the Government could take to dramatically reduce methane emissions from that sector.
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That is quite a sweeping statement, but it has the support of the Environmental Audit Committee and the much-quoted Mission Zero independent review conducted by Chris Skidmore MP at the Government’s behest. So the Government’s own report has come to the conclusion, together with the EAC, that a moratorium on flaring and venting in the North Sea is long overdue and should take place by 2025. It is eminently doable. The tools to do it are in place, and the IEA is absolutely adamant on that score, so all we really need is leadership and political will.
This is important because the waste is quite shocking. The amount of methane gas we just set a match to in the North Sea amounts to 760,000 UK homes that could be heated. Not only do we waste the energy but we waste the monetary value inherent in it, because we could capture the gas and sell it. Why is methane so important? It accounts for a full 30% of global warming, and the levels of methane in the atmosphere are surging. Methane emission really matters; it is a large factor in the huge climate catastrophe we are facing at the moment. We should consider that it is 80 times more effective and potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The only advantage, if there is any, of methane emissions and curbing them is that it is short lived. It has a lifespan of 20 years in the atmosphere, so if we were able to take action to curb methane emissions, it would have an immediate impact in the timeframe in which we are looking to meet the Government’s own net-zero targets.
The Government fully realise this. At COP 26, we were one of the leading nations in signing the global methane pledge to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030, so the Government already recognise how important this is. It is within their grasp, it will not cost them anything, and it will save ordinary households lots of money. It is a no-brainer, so I hope that the Minister will be able to give me some positive reassurance that this is an issue that the Government are taking extremely
seriously and that they realise how important it is that we are shown to be leading on this globally, because our leadership matters globally.