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Climate Change Bill [HL]

This is an interesting amendment because if the figures produced by the Committee on Climate Change are sufficiently strong and are presented sufficiently clearly, which we all hope they will be, they will in themselves be a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of the measures. I am worried that the amendment would add to the verbiage presented to Parliament and possibly cloud the issue. I hope the figures will speak loudly for themselves. Although the Committee on Climate Change should play an active role in recommending new measures and proposals, we need to think very carefully about this. Going back to the comments of my noble friend Lord Teverson on a previous amendment, there is a fine line between the democratically accountable body responsible for producing policy—which, after all, the Government are elected to do—and the Committee on Climate Change, an independent body which is there to produce the figures and monitor whether the Government are succeeding with their policies. The amendment seems to cloud those two issues together.