Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the draft Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 today. We have a responsibility to protect future generations, and there is a shared determination across these Benches to confront climate change. That is why today’s regulations will contribute to decarbonising our energy system to reach our net-zero aspirations. However, while net zero remains a laudable ambition, it must surely be achieved in a manner that protects our energy system and ensures that energy remains affordable for households and businesses. Surely it is time to stop kidding ourselves that this is a just transition when it is clearly not. Can we please instead begin to focus on an affordable transition? His Majesty’s loyal Opposition firmly believe there is nothing just about a clean power target of 2030 if it results in overreliance on intermittent renewables that are manufactured abroad, which means losing jobs overseas and hiking costs for UK customers. It is right that we have an ambition to produce the cleanest possible energy system in the UK. To do so, we must avoid ideological extremes at either end of this debate and find a middle way that is agnostic about where energy is sourced, so long as it is affordable, reliable and, yes, as clean as possible. In particular, with reference to these regulations, we must retain an element of natural gas, which is so crucial to our domestic heating system.