Britain must build its green economy to "eliminate Russian fuel from our energy mix once and for all", the International Trade Secretary will warn today.
Speaking during a visit to Norway, Anne-Marie Trevelyan will say the UK must first use its relationships with "reliable energy partners" to "meet our needs, protect our supply chains, and steady the global market".
But it must also invest in more sustainable sources, she will say, as green energy is out of the "malign reach" of Vladimir Putin.
Her speech comes at the start of a week in which Boris Johnson is expected to unveil the Government’s Energy Security Strategy, with plans for up to seven new nuclear plants and an expansion of offshore wind.
Cabinet Minister Grant Shapps admitted the war in Ukraine had been “a wake-up call to the West” over power supplies.
But he did not "favour a vast increase in onshore wind farms" - describing turbines as an “eyesore”.
The Transport Secretary said: “I would look to see more of it offshore.
"I think that's the logical place to do it, both in terms of the amount of wind and where the investment can go and where you can build it at very large scale.”
Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds warned: “I really think the Government are really making a mistake if they believe that onshore wind, which is the cheapest form of new electricity generation, isn't going to be part of the solution to this.”
Last week Conservative former cabinet minister Lord Deben said the Government should “nail its colours to the mast” on moving to green energy to encourage investment from the private sector.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme if making the switch had to involve a “bigger state”, he said: “What the Government needs to do is to give the private sector confidence that it’s going to keep to its policies, that it will provide the proper atmosphere for investment, and it will get most of this money out of the private sector.”
