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Climate Change Bill [Lords]

I join others in congratulating the Government on getting the Bill this far, even though it has been a rather slow and painful process at times. I should also like to congratulate Friends of the Earth and its campaign for the Big Ask, and various rebellious Members on both sides of the House. If it were not for their rebellious instincts, I do not think that we would be debating this Bill at all tonight. In her opening remarks, the Minister highlighted the links between economic growth and carbon emissions. That might be thought a slightly unfortunate and perhaps tactless thing to highlight when we are going into recession, but it is quite an important point to make. In fact, Sir Nicholas Stern—now Lord Stern, but Sir Nicholas when he wrote his report—pointed out that the biggest carbon emissions reduction achieved by any economy over a sustained period was that of Russia in the 1990s, and it achieved that, broadly, by collapsing its economy. It is particularly important, as we enter a recession, that we keep all the signals, indicators and policy frameworks to decarbonise our economy in place, so that UK plc is best placed to take advantage when the upturn comes, and can have an economy that will take advantage of a new era in global economics and business. That is particularly important, and it underlines many of the amendments in the group that we are discussing, all of which we Liberal Democrats will support. Government new clause 16 and the consequent new schedule and other amendments are welcome. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said earlier, from a sedentary position, that there was no choice to be made between tackling fuel poverty and tackling carbon emissions. If we can find policy mechanisms that do both at once, we certainly should take advantage of them. I have to say that the proposals have faint echoes of the green mortgages that the Liberal Democrats advocated years ago; those mortgages sought to do exactly the same. They linked carbon reductions to tackling fuel poverty and very high fuel bills. Unfortunately, fuel bills have got even higher in the meantime, and it has taken an economic crisis to stir the Government into real action on that front. Nevertheless, the new clause is welcome, as is the Government's acceptance that targets for 80 per cent. reductions in carbon emissions by 2050 should be in the Bill; again, the Liberal Democrats have called for that for years. It is important to recognise the progress that the Government are making, and to support it. I hesitate to say, ““We told you so,”” too many times—but we did, and we have been doing it for years. New clause 10 is also an important improvement to the Bill. As others pointed out, Sir Nicholas Stern said that the emissions trading scheme and carbon trading were necessary steps towards producing a decarbonised economy, but were probably not sufficient. It is important to grasp that point. The Minister talked about clause 33 in relation to sectoral opportunities, and clause 13 in relation to how policies affected various sectors, but the wordings are slightly wet. This is an area in which toughness and urgency are required, and new clause would 10 begin to deliver that. We need a host of additional incentives and policy measures, not least to give the clearest possible signals to the private sector. I have great faith in the private sector's ability to respond to policy frameworks. In my experience, given everything that I am learning about the renewable energy sector, low-carbon transport technologies and other environmental measures, when the private sector is given sufficiently clear signals, it responds brilliantly. A good example is the car industry's response to developing EU restrictions on carbon emissions, which are being flagged up decades in advance. I have to say that we Liberal Democrats would go much further, and would argue for zero-carbon new cars by 2050, but the emerging policy at European level is clearly sending the car industry strongly in the direction of lower-carbon technological innovation. My personal favourite is the Tesla Roadster, which is now on the road. It is rather expensive, but the emissions are only 25 g per kilometre. It looks quite like a Ferrari, and I would happily test-drive it, if anyone listening to the debate wants to offer me that opportunity. The white goods industry is another example of a sector that was given clear signals, not as part of some broad overarching general scheme, but on a specific basis, and in that case, too, the private sector responded well. Sectoral targets of the kind proposed in new clause 10 could play an important part in energising particular sectors. The hon. Member for Morley and Rothwell (Colin Challen) is right to want to give force of statute to targets that, as he said, were already Government policy in many respects. If we do not do that, there is of course a risk that they might go the way of other Government targets, such as the 2010 targets for CO2 emission reductions or the 2010 target for renewable energy; the Government have drifted away from those targets. We need the kind of pressure that is in the new clause to give a clear direction on issues such as microgeneration and the residential and commercial sectors. We need it to give businesses and industrial sectors the commercial drivers that will release investment, when those sectors can get it, and direct them clearly towards a lower-carbon future. There is an example in my constituency of which I am very proud. A very good but perfectly ordinary office supplies company called the Commercial Group has set itself the ambitious target of reducing its carbon footprint by 75 per cent. in just three years, and it is well on track to achieving that. That makes all the politicians' targets look, frankly, rather sick. That example demonstrates how well the commercial sector responds when it gets the bit between its teeth. I am happy to support new clause 10. One sector that might have been excused for thinking that it was a special case consists of the advocates of unabated coal-fired power stations. To say that the Government are giving mixed signals on that front is putting it mildly, and to call Britain a world leader in carbon capture and storage is like calling a penguin a polar bear. Since the Government proudly announced that they were a world leader in the field during the passage of the Energy Bill in the summer, two other countries, Germany and China, have produced working demonstration projects. As the Government were hoping to sell their more relaxed and gradual demonstration technology to China, that rather pulls the rug from under their feet.