Speeches by White.

“We were also trying to learn from other countries. I was talking to my Swedish counterpart, who said they have 70% heat pumps, obviously in a much colder environment. I was asking how on earth they managed to do it. They said it was the 1973 oil crisis. His own grandmother said, “That’s it! We will not be spending any …”

“Absolutely. Forests have been key to this Government’s agenda and, with due credit to the previous Government, its agenda as well—I think they had begun work on this. I used to work in the predecessor Department, and what I noticed coming back in was the centrality of nature and specifically forests to the internationa…”

“Thank you to all the Committee for some excellent questions and for food for thought. I look forward to continuing to engage with you and to hearing more of your feedback. It is genuinely welcome.”

“There is quite a lot in there. I think people can hold the sense that they would like a low-carbon, secure, cheaper energy future, and at the same time there are behaviour change measures. You talk about aviation, where people would still like to go on holiday and fly, but they would like to have a low-carbon future. I…”

“You raise an excellent point. For those fortunate enough to have a driveway, which is 70% of the country, there is an opportunity to install a charging point, and we have a grant—I think it is £500—available right now if you want to install a charging point in your own house or driveway. But that is not as easy for oth…”

“I believe so. The hon. Member from Derby is a huge advocate, as the Vaillant factory is in his constituency. Again, we are monitoring each of these. There has been a huge uptake, since the middle east crisis, of electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels on people’s roofs. We tend to see as well that once people in…”

“What I would say is that if you actually listen to the public and look at the polling on this, public support for our transition is incredibly high—I think we are at 68% support for taking more action to tackle climate change. I think most political parties would bite your hand off for some of those numbers.”

“I appreciate that, in this context and the social media world we live in, sometimes saying controversial things gets you more attention, so I wonder whether that is the motivation for some of this. But when we look at the UK, our natural resources on this windy little island are wind. I would like to take advantage of …”

“It is definitely worth considering. At the end of the day, we need to think about the impacts for our citizens across the whole country, and it is the responsibility of each Government Department to think about that. If there are significant issues, that will definitely factor into our decision making. As I say, we wil…”

“I understand that that was a recommendation of the Local Government Association. We will be discussing it with the Local Government Association and the Local Net Zero Delivery Group to see what is most practical. I think we just need to be practical about this. If it ends up, as you say, with communities missing out, a…”

“That is an excellent suggestion. MHCLG come with me to various meetings. We have another grouping, called the Net Zero Council, and MHCLG have definitely attended different meetings. I am not sure if they are due to attend this one, but I will take the point away and let you know what the interaction is. We have a grea…”

“It sounds like Kent county council missed a real opportunity there, because I know we have had a lot of investment going out through LEVI networks. I am sure many of your colleagues will be benefiting from that, and it is a shame if your constituents are not getting that opportunity. As I said in a previous answer, we …”

“There are no safety concerns, and it is the responsibility of parliamentarians across the board to be really clear about this, because these are incredibly safe technologies that are being used across the world and across our country. We have talked about support among the public. There are definitely some people who w…”

“Okay. Thank you for the suggestion.”

“You will understand that what we are doing is shifting from a model of, broadly, almost renting a commodity off other countries, in terms of buying gas and fossil fuels off other countries. We are shifting to an ownership model where we invest in our infrastructure as if we were investing in our own home, and there is …”

“Of course. Since I took on this role last September, it has very much been my endeavour to make the case as much as we can and bring colleagues with us. That is across Parliament and the country. You are absolutely right that costs are key to this. In some areas, the costs are working in our favour because they are obv…”

“You are absolutely right about that coming up in every briefing. If we can bring down the costs, it will make this whole thing a lot easier, for sure. On the pace at which we have moved, I do not think that anyone would deny—excuse this pun—the energy with which the Secretary of State has approached this agenda since w…”

“I absolutely agree that local authorities are key to this. We have some excellent pioneering local authorities who are leading the way on this and. We and DESNZ work with the local net zero delivery group. I chair a group on that, and I am looking forward to meeting them in the next week or two. It is a cross-party gro…”

“On the different examples that have been raised by Committee members, I would gently ask council colleagues, when we are seeing heatwaves, increased flooding and impacts across the country, and no one, I believe, is denying that climate change is happening, what their response is. If they are responsible people in posi…”

“Energy demand has declined since the last fossil fuel crisis—the invasion of Ukraine. There was a shift in behaviour in that people looked around their houses to see whether they could make tweaks and adjustments, and some of those have been maintained. That is true, but at the same time, the electrification of vehicle…”