Minister questioned on future of carbon pricing 

• Watch Pariliament TV: Carbon trading, emissions trading & Ofgem’s “RIIO 2” price-controls
• Letter from Kwasi Kwarteng
• Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee

Witnesses

Thursday 12 November 2020, vitual meeting

At 10.30am on RIIO 2

• Jonathan Brearley, Chief Executive, Ofgem
• Stew Horne, Principal Policy Manager – Energy Networks and Systems, Citizens Advice
• Nicola Shaw, Executive Director UK, National Grid

At 11.30am on ETS & Ministerial portfolio

• Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Ahead of Thursday’s session, the BEIS Committee has published today correspondence from Kwasi Kwarteng MP, BEIS Minister. This Ministerial letter responds to earlier correspondence from Darren Jones, Chair of the BEIS Committee, on a series of issues relating to the UK ETS Common Framework, the Treasury’s proposals for a Carbon Emissions Tax and the post-transition period regime for UK carbon pricing, raised in the BEIS Committee’s earlier session on the ETS on 15th October.

The BEIS Committee will be following up on these issues in the session with Kwasi Kwarteng, BEIS Minister, as part of the Committee’s scrutiny of the UK ETS Common Framework. The Committee are also likely to ask questions around the Government’s wider energy and clean growth policy.

RIIO-2 – network price controls (from 10.30am)

“RIIO” is the regulatory system that Ofgem uses to determine how much monopoly energy network companies can charge consumers for operating Britain’s power lines and gas pipes.

This session will investigate the issues around the current proposals for the new price controls (known as ‘RIIO 2’), which are due to come into force in 2021. Ofgem published ‘draft determinations’ (proposed new rules) for RIIO-2, the next set of network price controls, in July 2020.

This session is likely to look into some of the key principles behind the regulation including:

• ensuring the networks companies can operate the network securely and facilitate the transition to net zero,
• how consumers are supported and protected from excess costs,
• how Ofgem operates the price control process to be transparent and efficient.

ETS (from 11.30am)

The session on Thursday morning takes place amid recent media reports suggesting the Chancellor is planning a UK-wide carbon tax to replace the existing EU carbon-reduction scheme when the transition period finishes at the end of the year.

The ETS session will look at questions around the options for replacing the UK’s membership of the EU ETS, industrial competitiveness and carbon pricing, relationships with the devolved administrations, and how a new carbon pricing scheme will be aligned with the net zero target.

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

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