Lords energy inquiry: has the Government factored energy security sufficiently into its strategic planning?

These evidence sessions will be streamed live on Parliament TV.

At 2.30pm, the committee will hear from:

• Michael Liebreich, CEO at Liebreich Associates
• Ian Simm, Founder and CEO, Impax Asset Management.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• What actions should be taken to increase investment in energy sources that help us meet the Government’s 2035 decarbonisation target, while ensuring energy is affordable and reliable?
• Financial regulation - and investor and NGO pressure - has resulted in many financial service businesses creating investment strategies to divest of fossil fuels. Is this helping or hindering an orderly transition?
• As governments look to increase the supply of gas and LNG, who will finance these investments?
• Central banks are conducting climate stress tests on financial institutions. Should capital requirements be increased to reflect their lending to businesses involved in fossil fuels?
• Have wind and solar power become so cheap that there is no longer any point in offering Government support?

At 3.30pm, the committee will hear from:

• Professor Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy, University of Warwick
• Simone Tagliapietra, Senior Fellow, Bruegel
• Dr Jack Sharples, Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in this session include:

• How much ability and willingness is there among other major fossil fuel producers to increase their supply in the short term, to replace Russian oil and gas?
• Does the UK have greater energy security than the rest of Europe, in terms of prices and of the physical availability of gas?
• Is there a case for the Government to encourage more exploration and extraction of domestic oil and gas, from a security point of view?
• If accelerating renewables is part of the response, how can we ensure that we are not swapping dependency on fossil fuels from Russia, with reliance on rare earth minerals from China?
• Is there a case, from a security point of view, for the Government to invest more in energy storage facilities?

More on this inquiry

The committee’s work can be followed on its website and via Twitter.

The committee’s UK energy supply and investment inquiry is finding out if the Government’s energy strategy is delivering investment in an energy supply that is resilient, affordable and in line with achieving net zero emissions. The focus of this inquiry is on long-term energy policy and trends in the energy market.