§ Mr. David Howellasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will publish a table covering the years 554W 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983, respectively, showing the total savings in United Kingdom primary energy consumed over this period, with the figures adjusted for movements in gross domestic product so as to demonstrate the actual energy saving per unit of output; and whether he will give his assessment of the main reasons for any energy savings shown to have occurred over the period.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerChanges in primary energy consumption between 1979 and 1982, adjusted for movements in gross domestic product, are given in the following table:
1979 1980 1981 1982 (a) Decline in primary energy consumption. (i) million tons of coal equivalent (mtce) 22.1 11.9 3.6 37.6 (ii) per cent. 6.3 3.6 1.1 10.8 (b) Decline in primary energy consumption per unit of GDP at 1980 prices and at factor cost. (i) tons of coal equivalent (tce) per £ million of GDP 68.5 44.5 55.2 168.2 (ii) per cent. 4.0 2.7 3.4 9.7 Information on the whole of 1983 is not yet available. The difference between rows (a)(ii) and (b)(ii) in this table demonstrates that only about one tenth of the fall in primary energy consumption over this period was the result of falling gross domestic product. Of the 9.7 per cent. fall in energy consumption per unit of GDP, a small part is due to the more efficient conservation of primary energy into final form, rather more than one third represents the changing structure of the economy associated with the declining share of manufacturing industry in GDP during this period and the balance of about 5½ per cent. mainly reflects improved energy efficiency.