---

Climate Change (Political Response)

I thank the Deputy Speaker for giving me the chance to speak, and I thank the Liberal Democrats for initiating the debate. I echo the sentiments of the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell) that everybody wants to tackle climate change. The question is how we do that. I shall limit my comments to that being a matter of trust—the plans that the Government have for being trusted to deliver a response. I applaud voluntary action and fully support the 10:10 campaign. I am proud to have been able to answer many of my constituents already by saying that I fully support their campaign to have us support that. But we know that Government action is also necessary. Combating climate change is not something that individuals can do on their own. I welcome the bipartisan and tripartisan approach in the House today, and the commitment of so many Members to action on climate change, and I welcome the previous achievements of the House in passing the Climate Change Act 2008 to contribute towards what we all know we need to do. The Government’s current plan lasts for 10 years and requires buy-in. That is what we must ensure by contributing a little towards that today in the debate. We may require a general election for a full mandate for such a plan, but before that moment comes next year, which I am sure we will all welcome, we must take the opportunity for international action. Many hon. Members around the House have commented on what must be achieved at Copenhagen later this year. I come back to the domestic aspect. I shall speak about it as a matter of trust, and about what people look to us in the House to do. I hope I am not being too cheeky in suggesting that as the most recent Member to enter the House, I may bring with me a view from outside. That is to say that any Government action will require clear measurement, and the Government will have to go through a whole sequence: understanding the problem; diagnosing action that is possible; selecting the tools that we can use to go about those actions; setting targets; empowering people to meet those targets; and grasping the incentives available to help people to do that. I return to the value of the 10:10 campaign as a voluntary tool; it enables people to say, "We can do this, we want to do this, we want to be held to account, and we want the Government to join us." The Government plan must then be trackable and measurable. I welcome the recent publication of the Turner report, saying that the Government must be held to account for their actions. It says, too, that in the coming months measurement will be harder, because of distortions due to the level of economic activity, or lack thereof. Against that backdrop, we must make doubly sure that the Government—of any colour—can be trusted to do what we all want them to do. We cannot drop any part of the cycle that I have just outlined. People must be able to trust that the Government’s plan will do all those things, and observe the Government doing all those things, so that individuals know that they are getting what they have signed up to—what they have put their necks on the line for, and said they will do. Only last Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting in my constituency a school—not a Building Schools for the Future school, but a local academy—with a wonderful new building that serves as a teaching tool for the children on energy efficiency. That is the kind of measure that we need to help people to trust that things can be done and to learn how things can be done. Finally, I draw the House’s attention to the question of how this Government will gain the mandate for their 10-year plan. If they do not, we must seriously question the measure.