The best way to ease consumer pain from high energy prices is to stop using fossil fuels instead of digging for more of them, the government’s climate advisors say.
Some Tory MPs want the government to expand production of shale and North Sea gas as it would lower bills.
However, advisers said gas produced in the UK would sell internationally and would do little to lower the consumer price.
They said wind and solar power and home insulation are a better way.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) report comes at a time when household energy bills are rising rapidly. Due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, there is also international uncertainty about gas supplies.
The committee warned that new fossil fuel projects in the North Sea would in some cases not supply gas by 2050.
That is the date when climate legislation will dictate that Britain must be almost completely weaned off gas.
The committee said it favored stricter restrictions on drilling in the North Sea and advocated a “presumption against exploration”.
But she will not go so far as to recommend these measures to ministers, saying there are well-balanced arguments for and against drilling.
For example, gas produced in Great Britain is promoted in a more climate-friendly manner than imports, although it is not possible to say whether other exporters will reduce their own emissions in the future.
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In addition, a so-called windfall tax could be imposed on oil companies’ soaring profits — and the money returned to consumers.
Those uncertainties mean that decisions on whether to conduct further drilling in the North Sea must be left to ministers, the committee said.
The oil and gas industry believes they have a good case because of their below average emissions.
Environmentalists are angry that the committee has not followed the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) recommendation and ruled out further fossil fuel exploration because enough has already been discovered.
“We believe that the UK – with its diversified economy and large historic emissions – should lead the way in recommending no further oil and gas exploration,” Greenpeace’s Doug Parr told BBC News.
Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, said the committee was disappointed by the UK oil and gas industry’s ambitions to reduce its own operational emissions.
It said the industry could reduce pollution by reducing methane venting and electrifying oil platforms. And it warned that an oversupply of hydrocarbons worldwide would “blow up the Paris climate agreement”.
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Lord Deben, the chairman of the committee, strongly emphasized the need to continue on the path away from burning gas. He said if Britain followed the green policy outlined by the Prime Minister it would save £100 on future bills.
He said average household bills would now have been £40 lower if former Prime Minister David Cameron hadn’t abandoned plans to isolate the UK as part of his “end the green manure” initiative – a remark attributed to one of his aides led to an attack on energy-saving programs.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) hailed the report as “a recognition that carbon budgets can still be met as new oil and gas fields are developed in the UK”.
“There will be continued demand for oil and gas for decades to come as we transition to cleaner and cheaper forms of energy produced in this country,” the spokesman said.
Craig Mackinlay, one of the most vocal MPs calling for increased drilling in the North Sea, said the CCC Council had “finally recognised” that “UK gas production can create jobs, lower energy prices and contribute to energy security”.
The report comes a day after a think tank, Green Alliance, accused the government of wasting millions of pounds on developing oil and gas in the North Sea.
“Tax breaks and subsidies have made the UK one of the most distorted oil and gas exploration tax environments in the world,” it said.
The report estimates that between 2016 and 2020 fossil fuel companies received nearly £10bn in tax breaks for new exploration in the North Sea, while £3.7bn
However, the report warns that revenues from the mature basin are expected to decline as the remaining resources become more difficult to extract.
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