Ukraine crisis shows net zero is matter of UK’s national security – MP

Environment APPG chairman Anthony Browne said the impact of the Ukraine crisis on energy prices had been ‘muted’ by the UK’s use of renewable power.

Some Conservative MPs have called for fracking to resume to reduce reliance on Russian gas (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Archive)

The Ukraine crisis underlines the case for cutting carbon emissions, the chairman of a cross-party group of MPs has said amid calls to ramp up UK gas production.

Anthony Browne, Conservative chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Environment, said soaring gas prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed “the need to reduce our dependence on a globally traded commodity with high volatility”.

His comments followed calls from other members of his party to increase UK gas production, including by reversing the ban on fracking, in order to reduce imports of Russian gas.

Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, wrote in The Sun on Monday that banning fracking had been “foolish” while members of the Conservative Net Zero Scrutiny Group have argued that net zero policies will mean the UK and Europe continue to import Russian gas.

If our electricity had been overwhelmingly produced by gas, as it used to be, the impact on domestic prices would have been higher

Anthony Browne, Conservative MP

But Mr Browne told the PA news agency: “One of the strong arguments for net zero, apart from climate change, is national security.

“It’s important for us not to be dependent on energy supplies from countries that don’t share our values and may not always be friends.”

With less than 4% of the UK’s gas coming from Russia, Mr Browne rejected the idea that the UK was “reliant” on Russian gas and said imports could be banned “without much problem”.

The bigger issue was exposure to global gas prices, which reached record levels again on Monday after surging 47% compared with the previous day.

Mr Browne said: “The impact of that has been muted by the fact that a lot of electricity comes from renewable sources.

“If our electricity had been overwhelmingly produced by gas, as it used to be, the impact on domestic prices would have been higher.”

The Government has so far rejected calls to end the moratorium on fracking introduced in 2019 after the practice caused two minor earthquakes in Lancashire.

Energy minister Lord Callanan argued in the House of Lords on Monday that fracking would not produce enough gas to affect international prices and “really is not the silver bullet that people think it is”.

However, at a press conference on Monday Boris Johnson hinted that UK gas production could be increased but without abandoning the UK’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

Mr Browne told PA: “The important, top line thing is that we remain within the envelope set out by the Climate Change Committee, which does have gas on a downward turn, we are not suddenly banning it overnight.

“That’s the most important thing, to get on that downward slope, which we are on. A secondary question is where that gas comes from, and from an environmental point of view, a tonne of gas from the North Sea is the same as a tonne of gas from Russia.”