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Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill

My Lords, as the author of a recent book on the politics of climate change, one cannot stress too strongly that climate change is not a left/right issue. We see in the United States the danger of what happens when it does become a polarised issue, where President Obama’s climate change Bill runs the risk of not even passing through the Senate. Here there is a pleasing degree of political consensus, as my noble friend has said, visible in the Climate Change Act, the Energy Act, and in the work-up to the Bill before us. I congratulate Peter Ainsworth MP on introducing it. In the discussion in the Commons, he quoted Gandhi: ""‘The effect of an insignificant action is greater than the effect of no action by an infinity’".—[Official Report, Commons, 3/7/09; col. 595.]" It is possible to disagree with this. David MacKay, who is now the Government’s new climate change chief scientific adviser, in his very good book on sustainable energy, says: ""If everyone does a little, we’ll only achieve a little"." However, Mr MacKay sees a big future for one of the main sources of microgeneration, to which my noble friend has just referred, and that is air source heat pumps. He wants them eventually to have a big role and to replace gas on a large scale as a source of central heating. These pumps can work even when the temperature outside is very low. They have been in use in Sweden for a long while and they can work at low external temperatures and still generate heat. As with other microtechnologies, they have the advantage of devolving control to the consumer. If conjoined to insulation, air source heat pumps, ground heat pumps and small solar panels can quite readily provide effective heating and sufficient hot water for domestic dwellings on a regular and universal basis, and not only on a sporadic basis. The UK is not exactly covering itself in glory in promoting renewable energy technologies, so any further prompt will help. Britain ranks next to bottom among EU countries in the proportion of energy delivered by renewables. According to Mr Ainsworth, currently only just over 1,000 air source heat pumps and roof-top wind turbines exist in the UK as a whole, which is a miniscule number compared to other countries in the EU and elsewhere. The Bill follows in the wake of similar legislation in Wales, pioneered by the very energetic Environment Minister there, Jane Davidson, whose work I much admire. It does not cover exactly the same technologies but it is parallel legislation. In concluding I pick a different quotation from the two I mentioned earlier. It is from Chairman Mao: ""The longest journey starts with a single step"." I am happy to endorse the Bill and I hope it will achieve passage through Parliament.