The bosses behind Britain’s multibillion-pound clean energy rollout will gather in Downing Street to discuss the government’s plan for green economic growth later on Wednesday.
Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, is expected to meet the leaders of energy companies including EDF, SSE, Shell and BP, which are poised to invest billions in low- and zero-carbon projects.
Shapps will convene the summit at No 10 days after the prime minister ignited a row with green groups, opposition parties and the Conservative party’s backbench MPs over his plans to “max out” the North Sea’s reserves.
Alongside the talks over the energy companies’ plans to invest more than £100bn in the UK economy, which could create jobs around the country, Shapps is expected to call on the firms to help the government boost the UK’s energy security.
He is also expected to discuss plans to crack down on “disruptive protest groups” who may target critical energy infrastructure, according to a government statement.
Shapps was forced to defend the government’s stance on North Sea drilling, before the energy summit, against criticism that the plans are incompatible with Britain’s plans to become a net zero economy.
Rishi Sunak set out plans earlier this week to extract as much oil and gas from the North Sea as possible through 100-plus new drilling licences alongside a £20bn package of support for carbon capture and storage technology, which is largely backed by oil companies.
The Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, who authored an influential government review into net zero, said the decision to continue North Sea oil exploration was “the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time when the rest of the world is experiencing record heatwaves”.
Shapps told GB News it would be “irresponsible” not to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea and insisted the UK would “still meet our net zero targets”.
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“Everyone supports this country’s transition to net zero but we cannot get there by telling people ‘we’re simply going to stop using oil and gas’. The only way to do that would be to tell people ‘don’t put your gas boiler on, don’t drive a petrol car’ – and do that almost instantaneously,” Shapps said.
“Unless you do that, what you’re really saying is ‘we’re not going to dig our own oil and gas, we’ll import instead’. Yes, we’ll have more oil and gas licences but we’ll still meet our net zero targets because we’re also massively investing in all these renewables as well.”
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