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Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I very strongly support the amendment. I remember sharing a platform in a very supplementary capacity with the previous Prime Minister when he launched the project Accounting for Sustainability. It is a research project that is currently under way under the leadership of KPMG that intends to do exactly what the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, said, which is to put into the DNA of companies the consideration of something that, because our existing accountancy rules are retrospective and look at historical costs, has not, until comparatively recently, been part of the picture of practical management. This amendment is entirely consonant with the way in which the general picture is developing. As has already been stated, it is permissive and shows direction of travel rather than being mandatory, so it does not tie the Government’s hands in an inappropriately specific way. My right reverend Brother the Bishop of Liverpool is a signatory to the amendment. He is characteristically abroad on his environmental crusade, but I want to sign up to this as well, particularly as I chair the Church of England’s Shrinking the Footprint campaign, which affects 18,000 of our churches and many other buildings. I know perfectly well that such measures as are described here are complex, but it is entirely possible to get compliance and make progress, even with an amazingly devolved and undisciplined organisation such as ours. This is an essential indication of whether the Bill will take advantage of an evolution in the general climate, particularly the climate that relates to how we account for our enterprises.