Speeches by Shanks.

“You are absolutely right. That is the way forward. The consensus on climate action—I will say that rather than “net zero”—is fractured but not broken. It is exaggerated by Westminster politics. In the country there is a lot more consensus on this issue than you would believe by listening to some of the debates that we …”

“That is a really good question. I do not directly have as much to do with the international climate work, but I know that a lot of the conversations are shifting from the macro questions about our energy mix to the questions about how the transition affects communities. I was at the G20 in South Africa, and one of the …”

“That is the vision we really have. Solar panels on the rooftop of the school are great. I have visited a number of them. They reduce the bills of the school. The money goes straight back into schools and they spend it on all the things we want schools spending money on, but you can see a school as a real hub for commun…”

“It is for the NWF to speak about individual projects. Until those investment decisions are made, I am not going to put a figure on jobs, but they are in the tens of thousands. We have said that, for the amount of money—£100 billion—that the NWF is seeking to bring in through the private capital allied to the public cap…”

“Inevitably, it is largely from our European neighbours, which have been doing this for a very long time. I had a fantastic visit to Denmark to visit, I think, one of the first community-owned offshore wind farms, Middelgrunden, which was excellent. We learned from that that ambition should not be micro-scale generation…”

“I do not have the figures to hand. We can write to you on the questions.”

“Our clean power action plan is to decarbonise the power system, so it is not going to be our position that, post 2030, we should see unabated gas. That is very clear from us, but there is a need for us to provide capacity for the data centres that we want to bring to this country, for hugely important economic growth r…”

“Our clean power action plan is to decarbonise the power system, so it is not going to be our position that, post 2030, we should see unabated gas. That is very clear from us, but there is a need for us to provide capacity for the data centres that we want to bring to this country, for hugely important economic growth r…”

“We have not given a view, because there have not been any proposals brought forward. By 2030, we are trying to phase out the role of unabated gas in our power system.”

“I am not going to give advice to them. What we have said is that we want to strategically plan where our AI growth zones are, so that we are making use of constraints, wherever possible, and benefiting from things that we are currently spending money on. Secondly, we want to try to connect as many demand projects to th…”

“I do not want to parse my words in terms of what the project might look like, but if a local council was to support a community to deliver a project, but it was owned by the community, I would call that a community-owned project. If we are talking about a local council putting solar panels on leisure centres and connec…”

“Yes, investors were a part of the summit and they are part of the discussions that I have had, for example, at the North Sea Energy Forum. I was in Belgium recently meeting European Ministers and industry. The truth is that the summit represents our ambition as Europe to work together to tackle, in an uncertain world, …”

“That is great, whoever said that in Parliament. It is brilliant.”

“I will say a few things, and then Emma might want to come in on the KPIs point. The local power plan sets out the narrative on why we are doing this and the case for it. It will also have a whole series of actions that have very clear outcomes to them. We will then be judged on how we have achieved those outcomes. They…”

“Is it me? I agree with that. I agree with myself. There are multiple ways of looking at this. There is a straightforward way of communities benefiting directly, and you heard earlier on about the reforms that will allow communities to net off supply versus demand so that they do benefit from that. There are also ways—a…”

“I am not going to give advice to them. What we have said is that we want to strategically plan where our AI growth zones are, so that we are making use of constraints, wherever possible, and benefiting from things that we are currently spending money on. Secondly, we want to try to connect as many demand projects to th…”

“What I said previously is that we are not going to fix a number on it, but there has to be a mix. The reason that I am saying that is that I want to avoid putting a number on it and that then being seen as a ceiling on our ambition on either local or on community. I do not make any judgment about one being better than …”

“We will put a definition on a statutory footing, so that it is very clear to everyone what the Government define community energy as. That is a very good definition, but community-owned energy will be slightly narrower than some of those points. It picks up on the key elements that it is about the ownership structure, …”

“Let me just say right now, knowing that it is on the record, that I am accountable for this. Ed Miliband, as the Secretary of State, has taken it incredibly seriously. We, as Ministers, are responsible.”

“Just to give you an example, a few months ago, I was at a conference in Glasgow, where Community Energy Scotland was referencing some of the data in Scotland where community energy is not defined in a clear enough way. The number of projects that are, in fact, owned by landowners, not by communities, is really quite si…”