But beyond words, he offered little action for the region, a place defined by its energy history, shaped by its incredible landscapes and hardworking, innovative people – all of which are currently kept back from realising their full potential. The North powered the country in the past, and this week, we needed government to step up to unlock our world-leading potential in clean energy, for our present, and our future.

The North’s potential as an energy powerhouse is huge. Already over half of England’s renewable energy is generated here, with Yorkshire and Humber alone seeing a whopping 4,206 per cent increase in its renewable energy contribution since 2003. There is therefore a massive opportunity to position the UK as a world leader in renewable energy generation, with the North at the heart of this ambition.

At a time when our energy security, and a zero-carbon energy system couldn’t be more needed, it’s imperative that this potential is realised.

Johnson’s energy security strategy needed to do two things last week. First, it had to throw its weight behind supporting significant quantities of renewable energy. This is our best bet for rapidly decarbonising the UK’s energy system and developing new fuels like hydrogen. And second, it needed to prioritise ordinary people over and above profits, by implementing a windfall tax on oil and gas profits to support ordinary people struggling with astronomical bills. Both were missing. The strategy failed on both counts.

That being said, there were some positive noises made in the plan, including new targets for wind and solar energy. But the country requires more than positive noises. It needs unabridged ambition in action. What it got, however, was government choosing to shy away from throwing its full weight behind essential measures like onshore wind, or from enabling local energy devolution deals, or giving communities the opportunity to obtain energy assets themselves if they wish.

The lack of urgency is also alarming. While nuclear energy can play a vital role in decarbonising our energy system, we cannot wait a decade for new nuclear capability to be delivered.

Wind and solar energy provide a far more immediate source of clean energy that can help break our dependency on fossil fuels sooner, rather than later. That’s why the Government must deliver more, now.

It is clear that, when it comes to northern energy, government aren’t learning a vital lesson from the North’s former coalfields – that communities here deserve to experience a ‘just transition’. This means ensuring that the transition to a sustainable and green energy system raises up Northern communities and puts people before profit. But government aren’t taking the action needed to ensure that Northerners feel the benefits of the contribution they are making to our country, and our planet’s, energy security. Indeed, right now, one million Northerners and counting are trapped in fuel poverty despite the Government having the power and resource to choose to change this.

People across our communities are making the impossible choice between feeding their families and heating their homes and they deserve so much better than that. The country needs the North, and the North needs government to step up and do better. It makes sense – a cleaner, greener North of England, driven by local people without being held back by Treasury under-investment – would help to improve our resilience, tackle fuel poverty, bring improvements in public health, and level up the country. At the same time, huge quantities of renewable energy are vital to ensure that new and emerging industries, such as the production of hydrogen fuels, can grow rapidly and be genuinely green.

Northern leaders have already begun to develop ambitious plans to increase the North’s renewable energy generating potential. Indeed, we at IPPR North together with a ‘Northern Energy Taskforce’ of experts from across the region developed a Northern Energy Strategy worth £15bn each year to the economy, and 100,000 green jobs for people and businesses across our region.

The Government should back these plans to decarbonise our energy system, create jobs and level up the country.

Johnson must also step up to help people, immediately, by implementing a windfall tax on oil and gas profits to support those trapped in fuel poverty. And he should empower communities to feel the benefits of their energy contribution – by backing a skills system that enables local people to access the tens of thousands of high-quality green jobs that could be created in power in the North alone, and by enabling community ownership of renewable assets where that is wanted.

Jonathan Webb is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North. He tweets using the handle @jrkwebb.

What Boris Johnson and Kwasi Kwarteng should have included in the energy strategy - IPPR's Jonathan Webb