---

Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. I do not think that that has been done. One of the concerns that their lordships raise comes down to the public’s scepticism about politicians. If we do not run through all the solutions, include all the costs and have a full and frank discussion with the public about the costs of climate change and of dealing with it, their lordships argue:"““Ultimately, a public that is not adequately informed may react adversely to the discovery that more and more cost burdens will fall on them, and on their children, in the name of warming control.””" Their lordships refer briefly to the fuel protests in 1999 and 2000 as an illustration of what happens and how sensitive the public are to even relatively modest increases in the cost of energy. I hope that the Minister will give us an idea of how the Government see the costs of energy panning out over the next few years and how the proposals in the Bill might impact on that. Having dwelt for a few moments on climate change and the thoughts of their lordships, I now want to turn to the Bill and make a couple of comments about it. The hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) referred to targets in his speech and my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst asked him whether a strategy of having targets and reports had been very effective. I am a little more sceptical than the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith about the likely success of such a strategy. The most important provision in the Bill appears in clause 2 on an ““Annual report on greenhouse gas emissions””. Clause 2(1) lays"““a duty on the Prime Minister in the course of each year to lay before Parliament a report on—""(a) steps the government has taken to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases . . . and""(b) the level of emissions of greenhouse gases in the United Kingdom””." That just asks the Prime Minister to lay before the House a report, even though, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst has suggested, the Government are past masters at producing reports, documents, working parties and all sorts of other groups. When difficult decisions need to be taken in local government, we know that they set up a report under an eminent person. When the report is produced and a tricky decision is needed—I am sure that decisions on climate change will be the same—yet another report under the same eminent person is commissioned and the issue is kicked into the long grass. Just asking the Prime Minister to produce a report without imposing any further duties on him is an excuse to lay before the House lots of documents and hot air, with not much progress being made towards the targets.