The Department of Energy and Climate Change “disagrees” with a ban on fracking.

MPs on parliament’s environmental committee, the EAC, published a report today calling for a ban, claiming the UK can only use a “fraction” of the gas wells to stay within our targets to cut carbon emissions.

The government rebutted this, in a statement saying UK shale development “is compatible with our goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and does not detract from our support for renewables, in fact it could support development of intermittent renewables.”

A DECC spokesperson added: “We disagree with the conclusion of  this report. We have one of the most robust regulatory regimes for shale gas… Shale gas has huge potential to create jobs and make us less reliant on imports.”