Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary to tell party conference a Jeremy Corbyn government would impose a full ban on fracking
Labour will today announce it will impose a full ban on fracking in the UK if elected, arguing new shale gas infrastructure would "lock" the country in to fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when it should be decarbonising.
Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary Barry Gardiner will tell the Party's conference in Liverpool that the next Labour government will "back the clean technologies of the future".
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"Today I am announcing that the next Labour government will ban fracking in the UK," he is expected to say. "Fracking locks us into an energy infrastructure that is based on fossil fuels long after our country needs to have moved to renewables."
The move could face criticism from some of Labour's union backers, who have in the past argued in favour of the develpoment of a UK-based shale gas industry.
However, Gardiner will insist a full ban on fracking is justified and say that Labour intends to now "consult with our colleagues in industry and the Trade Unions about the best way to transition our energy industry to create the vital jobs and apprenticeships we are going to need for the UK's low-carbon future".
The move builds on Labour's previous proposal for a moratorium on fracking, which was adopted after the government controversially watered down a number of environmental safeguards for the nascent industry.
Labour indicated that its strengthened position would provide "regulatory certainty for investors about our long-term direction of travel to an economy powered entirely by clean energy".
Gardiner, who also serves as Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade in Jeremy Corbyn's slimmed down shadow cabinet, is also expected to provide further details on Corbyn's ambitious plans to source 65 per cent of the UK's power from renewable sources by 2030 and increase the rate of domestic energy efficiency improvements.
Specifically, he will today announce plans for a new scheme to deliver energy efficiency upgrades to the homes of disabled military veterans.
Dubbed Homes Fit for Heroes, Gardiner will say he is working with Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis to deliver a scheme that would insulate the homes of disabled veterans for free. Around 18,000 disabled veterans are expected to be eligible for the proposed scheme.
He will also detail how the scheme will form part of a wider push to deliver domestic energy efficiency upgrades.
"More people die from cold each winter here in the UK than in Finland," he will say. "We have four million people in fuel poverty and yet heat is escaping through draughty walls and windows. We will train a skilled workforce to retrofit insulation in Britain's older housing stock to help vulnerable people keep warm and safe and free from fuel poverty."
Labour is set to announce it will spend up to £90m on energy efficiency measures with contracts awarded to regional areas to deliver efficiency upgrades.
Gardiner will also provide further details of Corbyn's plan to boost the fledgling community energy sector, announcing plans for a new programme called Repowering Britain.
"The programme will put you in control," Gardiner will say. "We need to localise the way energy is produced and stored. I want people earning from the energy they produce on their rooftop solar on their community wind turbines, not just consuming what the Big Six sell. We need to create smart networks and local grids to make energy work to pay people rather than people working to pay their energy bills."
The scheme is expected to give community energy groups a "right-to-supply", allowing them to sell power directly to their local community.
The speech comes as the shale gas industry this week confirmed no new wells would be fracked in the UK this year, even if the government gives the green light to projects in Lancashire that were blocked earlier this year by the local council.
However, hopes amongst environmentalists that the May government could break with the Cameron's government's plans for new shale gas investment were thwarted over the summer when Ministers unveiled new proposals to pay communities that host fracking projects.
Labour's proposed fracking ban was welcomed by Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, who called on all Labour MPs to now join the campaign against new fracking projects.
"Not only does fracking pose risks to local communities, but drilling for gas under our countryside risks undermining our climate change commitments too," she said. "It's now down to every Labour politician, from local councillors, to assembly members and MPs, to oppose any plans for fracking in their areas."
But in a sign of the opposition Labour could face from some of the unions in enacting its ban, the Press Association quoted Gary Smith, the GMB union's Scotland secretary, as saying the proposed ban was "madness".
"We will have to confront the fact that we will be buying gas from hangmen, henchmen and head-choppers," he told the news agency. We don't think that's ethical. We have world-class regulators and world-leading standards in terms of monitoring. Ruling it out now is madness."
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