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Climate Change Bill [HL]

Can we have another go at this? I do not think that the Minister fully understands what my noble friend the Duke of Montrose is aiming at. This involves looking at the problem from a different point of view. The committee is a free agent—to use the Minister’s words—to look at whatever it wants, which is covered by Clause 10(3). In fact, we could delete Clause 10(2) and just revamp subsection (3) to say that the committee and the Secretary of State can take anything they like into account. There has been that usual get-out clause in lots of Bills. Clause 10(2) refers to particular points for the committee to take into account. I believe that my noble friend’s amendment is intended to get the Committee on Climate Change and the Secretary of State to consider the consequences of not moving as fast as could be. It seems to me that Clause 10(2) is negative, whereas my noble friend’s amendment is positive. Going back to the point that I made about the Treasury press notice and the effect on GDP, if the effect of a proposal from the Committee on Climate Change is to reduce GDP by, say, 1 per cent over five years, that is a fairly tough hair shirt. However, if the committee were to find that the consequence of not doing more would be a greater reduction in GDP, it is much easier—