---

Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the Committee on Climate Change and I hasten to add that I am not necessarily expressing an opinion shared by my colleagues. I am broadly in favour of the amendment, and not only for the reasons that have been advanced; I hear the counter-arguments that there are many situations in which responsibility is distributed among departments. Here is something that is extraordinarily important. However, given the kaleidoscopic speed at which departments are reorganised, reshuffled and reapportioned, while it may be true that we can assign primary responsibility to Defra—we are looking at a Bill that deals with the next 50 years—it may be that in the not-too-distant future it would be better to have one department that is all about climate change. It is more likely that responsibilities will be yet more scattered than at present. For all of the reasons that have been mentioned about the present and for those reasons about the future, I am in favour of the amendment.