Professor John FitzGerald:

I have given the Deputy my answer.

On the issue of gas, if one looks at the work on how to get to zero net emissions by 2050, that done by the United Kingdom and Denmark - of the ones that I have looked at - is the most sophisticated. The United Kingdom is upping the ante by stating that it will reach net zero by 2050, but that will involve gas-fired generation and pumping the emissions back into the ground. One could not do that with oil because one will not collect the emissions from the exhaust of a lorry or car and pump them into the ground. Gas is a transitional fuel. The Deputy made that point that we do not want to invest in this. In the context of the transition, people should be investing in heat put rather than gas boilers. Investing in a gas boiler is not the way to go, it is a waste of money. In terms of electricity generation, it may well be that we will still have significant gas-fired generation in 2050 but that we will achieve net zero emissions by pumping the gas back into the ground. Some gas may well be part of the solution.