---

Energy Bill

I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord whose comments, which displayed his obvious expertise, certainly educated me and perhaps other Members of the Committee. I hope that I can add to them. I am advised that onshore storage is not permitted because of the current EU landfill directive but that negotiations are under way with a view to introducing a change in the policy by 2009. Under the new directive it may well become possible to store CO2 on land. I was right in what I originally said to the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, but he was right to wonder why that was the case. It looks as if the EU may be catching us up. We are one of the countries proposing an alteration to the existing directive to allow a more flexible response. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, rightly pressed me on the extent to which Ospar and the London protocol have been agreed. The London protocol is completed but Ospar needs to be ratified by seven contracting states. Norway has already done so and we shall do so shortly. I am delighted to say that the helpful lesson that we have just had from the noble Lord in relation to storage on the open sea comprises exactly what I had to say, although not in the same words. I have tried to explain what we are trying to do. Including all the obvious measures in subsection (3) would not be nearly as useful as including some of those things which may become necessary because of the very nature of the CO2 storage that is in the process of being developed.