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The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), has regular discussions with representatives of the renewable energy sector, including on our objectives for 2050. All meetings between DECC Ministers and external organisations are published on a quarterly basis on the DECC website and are available for download at the following link:"'http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/accesstoinform/registers/registers.aspx"The UK is already the recognised global leader in both offshore wind and marine energy. In respect of offshore wind, the UK has the most installed capacity of any country in the world, the biggest pipeline of projects up to 2020 and also has a very high potential for deployment to 2030, as set out in the UK Renewable Energy Roadmap. In respect of marine energy, wave and tidal stream technologies are still at an early stage of development, and larger scale deployment is anticipated in the period beyond 2020. Further details are set out in the UK Renewable Energy Roadmap which can be found at:"http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/meeting-energy-demand/renewable-energy/2167-uk-renewable-energy-roadmap.pdf"However, the Government envisage multiple low carbon technologies: renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS) all competing freely against each other in the years to come, driving down capital costs as the market forces innovation and greater efficiency. Any technology-specific target risks distorting the market and making investment in other low carbon technologies more difficult. It could also force the UK down a more expensive route to 2050 than necessary.The investment associated with our reforms to the electricity market (which involve stimulating over £100 billion of new investment in the electricity sector alone) have the potential to generate around 250,000 jobs in low carbon electricity to 2030. |