Ed Miliband: ‘Our mission is to drive for clean, homegrown energy we can control’

As conflict in the Middle East pushes up global oil and gas prices, families will be worrying about the impact on bills here in the UK. The government’s number one priority is to tackle the affordability crisis.

That is why we acted in the budget to bring down bills, funded by asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share, with these savings locked in until July. At every moment of this crisis, we will fight people’s corner, including clamping down on any potential for price-gouging for heating oil or at the petrol pump.

We will also act on the single most important long-term lesson: while we are so dependent on fossil fuels, households, business and public finances are exposed, and there can be no proper energy security for our country. That is why this government’s defining mission has been to drive for clean, homegrown power we can control.

Already, in 20 months, we have shown what is possible. We overturned the sclerotic onshore wind ban within 72 hours of coming to office. We’ve secured enough power in our renewables auctions for the equivalent of 23m homes, and turbocharged the drive for new nuclear power.

Global events demonstrate there’s not a moment to waste in our drive for clean power. So today I’m announcing a series of initiatives that we will be launching this summer. We’re also speeding up the availability of “plug-in solar” to the UK. These are small solar panels you can buy in a supermarket and put on your garden or balcony. They are already wildly popular in Germany, and we will work with supermarkets and retailers to make them available here. We’re also fast-tracking our warm homes plan, bringing forward funding to local authorities so they can speed up the upgrades and insulation projects.

At the same time, it is essential that we reject false arguments that would increase the risks we face. Reform and the Conservatives look at the volatility of global fossil fuel markets and say: “Let’s double down.”

Of course, as we build our clean-energy future, North Sea production continues to play an important and valuable role, which is why we are keeping existing oil and gasfields open for their lifetime. But it is an inescapable fact that the North Sea is a maturing basin, with production down 75% since 1999.

Because of this, Britain is a price taker not a price maker in international fossil fuel markets. New exploration licences would not take a penny off bills, as the Conservatives admitted when they were in office.

On supply, new exploration licences are simply too marginal to have a meaningful impact on levels of oil and gas production. And as the National Energy System Operator (Neso) says, they would not make a material difference. Meanwhile, the faster we reduce our use of gas across the economy, the less reliant we will be on imports. Staying on track for net zero will save the equivalent of two liquefied natural gas terminals’ worth of gas demand by 2050.

So the transition to clean energy is fundamental to energy security. But at precisely this moment of global instability, opponents have pledged to “wage war” on the very energy sources we need. The Conservatives said we should cancel the most recent renewables auction, and Reform has said it would rip up renewables contracts. We should be clear about what this would mean: a permanent outsourcing of our energy security to global markets we don’t control.

Looming over all of this is the existential climate crisis. Just as there can be no security for current generations on a fossil fuel energy system, t here is no security for future generations in a rapidly warming world. Speeding up the clean-energy transition is the best answer for energy security and tackling climate change, and this government will not back down.

Ed Miliband is secretary of state for energy security and net zero