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Climate Change Bill [Lords]

Why is it important to set these achievable targets, and to put them into statutory form? We need to inform ourselves about what is happening today. The investment being made in insulation and other aspects of energy efficiency is struggling to cope with our stated objectives, and many manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and insulation materials are having problems. For example, Knauf Insulation makes plasterboard and insulation materials. It does not produce a poor product—the firm is actually at the cutting edge of the industry—but it is closing its factory in St. Helens because sales are not sufficient to keep the business going. I have also spoken to people in the microgeneration industry. They have complained about the to-ing and fro-ing—a sort of game of ping pong—that has occurred in the low-carbon buildings programme with the result that, from one month to the next, they cannot tell how much work they are going to get. When the terms of the programme were changed to reduce support for microgeneration projects, many people decided that the payback period was stretching out so far that they no longer had any interest in pursuing that course. It is therefore clear that we need to set statutory targets, and not just say that they are aims or objectives that have no force. In conclusion on new clause 10, I should tell the House that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform commissioned independent research on microgeneration that was carried out by a company called Element Energy. The research found that"““the underlying certainty and impact provided by a combination of legally binding targets and policies will drive the decisions by suppliers and their investors””," and that"““there appears to be a sensible logic for establishing a microgeneration target in the UK””." That also extends to the other proposals that I have mentioned, and these are matters that the Government have to take on board. They may not do so in this Bill, but I think that we will have to return to the issue and strengthen our objectives with statutory backing. I want to comment briefly on new clause 11. The Opposition Front-Bench spokesman, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker), weakened his case tactically by allying it so much to the fantasyland of a future Conservative Government's targets. The new clause already has cross-party support, but it would have got even more support if the hon. Gentleman had just presented it on its merits. It is perfectly sensible to set a CO2 emissions target for new power stations. I cannot see what the objection is to that. The opposite, of course, would be to permit anything. There are different ways in which such a target could be set. The Government could say, ““We'll have a target whereby new coal power stations must have such an efficient combined heat and power plant attached that even without carbon capture and storage, it would be possible for us to approve them.”” It would all depend on the level set. I was speaking from memory when I intervened on the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle, but I listened to Lord Turner last week.