On 4 February 2025, Nick Timothy MP challenged the Government to guarantee that the British carbon price would remain lower than the European price for the remainder of this parliament. He refused. The carbon price set out in his plan to decarbonise the grid will destroy British industry.
See the Hansard transcript below or, to view the full debate, click here (see Mr Timothy’s question at Column 655).
Nick Timothy, MP for West Suffolk: The Government policy to decarbonise the grid by 2030 rests on the National Energy System Operator’s assumption of a £147 per tonne carbon price, but manufacturers are lining up to tell the Energy Secretary that it would destroy British industry. Will he guarantee today that for the remainder of this Parliament, we will have a lower carbon price than Europe?
Ed Miliband, The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero: NESO made that assumption, but it does not reflect our assumption that the carbon price will be significantly lower. I will not start predicting market prices. What I will say to the hon. Gentleman is that the difference between him and us is that he believes that we should double down on fossil fuels as the answer to the problems facing the country, whereas we know that clean energy is the way forward.
