To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the level of (a) carbon dioxide emissions and (b) carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour for the life-cycle of the proposed new (i) coal, (ii) gas, (iii) oil, (iv) hydroelectric, (v) nuclear, (vi) wind and (vii) tidal power generating facilities. (310069)

Any estimates of total life cycle emissions of power stations necessarily contain a high degree of uncertainty and outcomes will depend strongly on market factors such as energy prices, electricity demand profiles and plant life times. With the exception of nuclear power the department has not produced any of the requested estimates. With respect to per unit life cycle emissions, the 2008 White Paper on nuclear power estimated that the life-cycle emissions from nuclear power were in the range of 7-22gCO2/kWh of electricity generated. The white paper references two papers which have produced estimates of life cycle emissions per kWh. Nuclear Energy and the Kyoto Protocol (2002) OECD Nuclear Energy Agency; Assessing the difference: Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity Generation Chains (2000) IAEA Bulletin. We summarise the information provided by these papers as follows for other technologies and our estimates for nuclear.

Neither the Department nor the referenced studies have produced estimates for tidal power generation.