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Climate Change Bill [Lords]

Amendments Nos. 17A and 17B represent a small step in the right direction on the issue of domestic effort, but remain vague. Their lordships thought that at least 70 per cent. of the savings needed to be made domestically. Their Bill came to this House, and the Government got rid of that provision in Committee. The Bill went back to the other place, and they said, ““All right, we won't do that, but there will at least be some sort of cap.”” I suppose that having some sort of cap is better than having none, but there is no indication in the amendments of what cap we are talking about—whether it is 50, 60 or 70 per cent. We await the advice of the Committee on Climate Change, and as that is due in a few weeks I recognise that there is some advantage in flexibility. I want to stress, however, that this is not purely a technocratic issue—I am glad to see that the Secretary of State is in his place—where we just buy from the cheapest place, and assume that if we buy abroad or at home it does not much matter because a ton of carbon is a ton of carbon. National leadership is fundamentally important, and I am worried that his Department has started to say something profoundly concerning. When questions are asked about what Governments might do that would lead to emissions, such as airport expansion, coal-fired power plants or whatever, the answer from Ministers is that it does not matter because there is an overall cap. Heathrow expansion does not matter because aviation is in the emissions trading scheme—