On Wednesday Caroline Lucas asked a very significant question on Rishi Sunak during the Prime Ministers question session and it is very interesting to know how he is treating his daughter. On the following day the Greenpeace website set out a piece on their website entitled “Greenpeace responds to Sunak’s remarks on Rosebank during PMQs” and they begin with the words “Responding to remarks made by Rishi Sunak at PMQs regarding Rosebank oil field, Philip Evans, Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, said: “When it comes to the energy crisis, the Prime Minister is proving he is the one that is economically illiterate. “Doesn’t he understand that any oil and gas drilled in the North Sea will be simply sold on the international market, handing more huge profits to energy companies? This will do nothing to lower bills at home.” The piece from Greenpeace is here and this question and answer is available here.

Caroline Lucas: The Prime Minister has previously declared “my…daughter…is the climate change champion in our house.” I wonder if he has asked her what she thinks about Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North sea, which would blow climate targets, create more emissions than 28 of the world’s poorest countries combined, involve the obscene transfer of £4 billion of taxpayers’ money to a Norwegian energy firm—Equinor—and do nothing for energy security since the vast majority of the oil will be exported. If he gives Rosebank the green light, will he be able to look his daughter in the eye and honestly say that he has done everything in his power to give her and all other young people a liveable future?

Rishi Sunak: As the independent Climate Change Committee has acknowledged, we will need fossil fuels for the next few decades as we transition to a greener future. During that period, it makes absolutely no sense not to invest in the resources that we have here at home and not to create jobs here but to import foreign fossil fuels at twice the carbon emissions of our local resources. It is an economically illiterate policy—but that is what we would expect from the Green party.