Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:10 pm on 17 May 2022.
Thank you. I think that there is lots of potential for people who have been involved in former industries that are unlikely to be future industries for the longer term. People who have engineering, research and development skills, there are opportunities there. When you think about the potential for hydrogen and the infrastructure that is going to be needed, we are going to need to have significant UK Government investment, as well as private sector investment, to get the infrastructure right.
There are choices to be made around what part—if any at all—non-green hydrogen has to play in getting our infrastructure right, to make sure that we don't hold back the opportunity to develop green hydrogen from this offshore marine energy generation. There are real economic opportunities in all of that, and it's no surprise that there are people who are engaged in current petrochemical industries who are interested in investing in this area.
When you think about the number of people that are bidding for, or have already successfully acquired, licences: British Gas, Centrica, BP and Shell and others are all in this space because they want to carry on being energy generation companies. So, while we are not here to further promote the oil and gas industry, we will need to work with oil and gas companies to properly take account of what they are prepared to do to invest in the future of renewable power, and that will undoubtedly take in the Member's constituency.