EXCL Energy minister says Government should stop funding coal around the world
3 min read
The Government should stop funding any projects that support coal production around the world, the Energy Minister has said.
Claire Perry said coal was “too polluting a fossil fuel for us to be burning or supporting” in an exclusive interview with the House Magazine.
And she hinted that restrictions on subsidies for onshore wind farms could be eased for projects in parts of Scotland and Wales.
The Government has already launched the ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’ with Canada in a bid to lead the drive towards ending coal power generation by 2025.
But Energy and Clean Growth Minister Ms Perry revealed she was urging colleagues to go further to ensure coal production was not being supported “through any of our government activities”.
“I would quite like us to have a coal free HMG where we actually don’t support coal mining activities,” she said.
“I haven’t persuaded all other ministers about that yet - but that would be something where we could genuinely say coal is too polluting a fossil fuel for us to be burning or supporting.”
The Devizes MP added: "It would be that we weren’t supporting coal projects through international trade - so through any of our government activities.”
Ms Perry said the proposal was “just an idea” she had raised personally and argued it was “very hard to see how coal could be included in the mix going forward”.
However she refused to support pulling the MPs’ pension fund out of investments in fossil fuel companies - arguing they were investing in clean technology and should be supported to do that.
The £612m pot is wrapped up in part with oil, gas and coal producers, including a £5.6m stake in BP and a similar stake in Royal Dutch Shell. Labour and the Green party have said it should divest from fossil fuel firms.
Ms Perry said she had considered writing to Speaker John Bercow about the issue but said it was not simple because the global firms were “partners” in the move to renewable energy.
She also said ministers were “looking carefully” at calls to ease the restriction on onshore wind subsidies in parts of Scotland and Wales.
'BREXIT JIHADIS'
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Perry admitted that saying some of her colleagues were "like jihadis in their support for a hard Brexit" when she was on the backbenches in February last year was a “poor choice of words”.
But she added: “I abhor extremism in any form, whether it’s coming from one side or the other.
“I have always found it difficult to see really great loyal colleagues being abused for their views on a particular political issue.
“And I’m afraid as much as I try and bite my lip in a stateswoman like way, sometimes I just really hate extremism and I’m going to call it out when I see it.”
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