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Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Bill

My Lords, I am deeply gratified—as no doubt is Mr Ainsworth—by the range of support for the Bill not only here and in another place but from some of the most expert commentators on the economics of climate change and on climate change itself in my noble friends Lord Giddens and Lord Hunt. In the course of the debate, I learnt that we apparently also have the support of Gandhi and Chairman Mao. I had not hitherto realised that this had quite such a wide base. It is important that we move forward with consensus on the Bill. Although I agree with most of what noble Lords have said, there was one point that I may have misheard when the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, said that this was not the big deal. No, it is not the big deal in the sense that we still need to decarbonise the big generators of electricity and we still need massive efforts at energy efficiency around the economy and society. But it is a big deal in this sense: it enables local people, individual households, small businesses, farmers and other landowners, without huge bureaucracy, huge costs and huge expenditure of their time, to install these technologies in their own premises at cost savings to themselves and as a major contribution towards carbon saving in society as a whole. A number of points have been made and I will comment briefly on two of them. Both the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, referred to the role of local authorities. Local authorities can take advantage of and facilitate this legislation. There are other aspects of local authority activity, particularly planning standard activity in relation to both small and medium-scale green technologies, which need addressing. As the Minister has indicated, we may have to come back to that. There are also areas where we need to speed up the process. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, that the "must" addressed to the Government in this legislation is an important feature of it. Within six months the Government have to come forward. Some of the things that help this also need addressing. The Minister referred to the supply chain. It is important that we ensure that we have an adequate supply chain for these technologies and, indeed, for the larger technologies using low-carbon and nil-carbon energy. There is a skill issue involved here. I happen to be chairing a conference in Liverpool next week, organised by the British Wind Energy Association. My session deals specifically with skills. We do not want a bottleneck in this area because the skills and industrial back-up are not there. However, we are allowing the demand to be created and are therefore stimulating those industries. The UK, having been behind, as the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, has said, could move ahead in these technologies, to great economic, as well as environmental, benefit. When I sat in my noble friend’s place as a Minister, I would never have dared indicate to the Chamber that we did not really want any amendments to this legislation. The Minister is much braver than me. I was going to mention it gently in winding up, but at this stage in the parliamentary cycle it is not helpful to have amendments, particularly on new areas. I address this in particular to my noble friend Lord Hunt, however worthy his amendments might otherwise have been. If we are to get this on the statute book, after all the effort in the Commons to get consensus and the clear consensus across the parties here tonight, we have to try to ensure that it gets through fairly speedily. In no sense am I trying to close debate on the issue but I think noble Lords will, in the process of this Bill, bear that in mind, given the enthusiasm that has been shown around the Chamber tonight. I will leave it as delicately as that. I thank noble Lords for their support and beg to move that this Bill receives a Second Reading. Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House. 8.18 pm Sitting suspended.