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Climate Change Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Turner, admirably expressed what I was going to say, but I want to add one more thing. It is important to get the right balance between international credits and UK action for all the reasons that Members of the Committee have described, such as the decarbonisation—that is a dreadful word—of the UK economy. Furthermore, we will not exactly look like global statesman and leaders on the carbon front if we are not doing very much back home, and, at the moment, confidence in the green development mechanism is not where it should be in terms of the sorts of gases that it is reducing and the verification mechanism. In the early stages, there is an absolute need for a strong focus on carbon reduction within the UK as well as doing our bit for carbon reduction internationally. I am not sure whether the target is the right one—there are two different targets for two different amendments in this group. The noble Baroness Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, admirably wrestled with the complications of the targets. The answer probably lies with the climate change commission—sorry, climate change committee: that was a Freudian slip that pre-empts a future amendment—but that worries me. The noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, talked about year-to-year changes by the climate change committee. That is not the answer either. We have to find a way of giving a strong signal to British business and investors in British business that the Government are earnest about UK carbon reduction. However we do that, it needs to happen. Some strengthening of the role of the climate change committee in the Bill to make it clear that there is a requirement for it to report in that fashion and to make a strong recommendation to the Government along those lines would be of some assistance.