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Climate Change Bill [HL]

I, too, support what my noble friends Lord Taylor and Lord Selborne have said, for the slightly different reason that it is fundamental to the Bill that we take it outside the scope of the normal political timescale, which is electorally driven. Five years just about does it. It takes us beyond the normal time for which a Government will survive. Very few Governments survive to the last day when they must be elected; they normally go to three and a half, or to four and a half, years. I know we had one that did—I shall say nothing about that—but this will escape from that normal political cycle. That will be an immense strength, because Governments standing for election will have to recognise that there is a commitment for the future that must be met. There will be no excuse for attempting to argue that, because we have had an election, we can do something different. It might be possible to make adjustments in the following five-year cycle, but they will have to recognise in any election that commitments have been made with a view to the 42-year or 43-year timescale that we are working to. That is very important.