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Opposition day on Wednesday, 21 October 2009, in the House of Commons, led by Simon Hughes. The answering member was Joan Ruddock.

Climate Change (Political Response)

Climate Change (Political Response). Nineteenth opposition day debate (part 2). Main question negatived on division (226 votes to 297). Amendment agreed to on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
497 c976-1026 
Session
2008-09
Department
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 497 c1007 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I just remind the House that from now on there will be a four-minute limit on speeches?
Speaker | 497 c997 (Link to this contribution) Order. I realise that I am fighting a losing battle on this occasion. There are a great many hon. Me...
Show all contributions (165)
Simon Hughes | 497 c976 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House believes that it is vital that the UK demonstrates political leadersh...
Speaker | 497 c976 (Link to this contribution) I inform the House that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister. Be...
Simon Hughes | 497 c976-7 (Link to this contribution) Not yet. I am trying to respect the Deputy Speaker’s exhortation. Action on climate change clearly ...
Rob Marris | 497 c976 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Andrew Smith | 497 c977 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Rob Marris | 497 c977 (Link to this contribution) May I gently suggest to the hon. Gentleman and the House as a whole that a debate on the UK’s politi...
Simon Hughes | 497 c978 (Link to this contribution) If the right hon. Gentleman had seen the preparation for my speech, he would know that I will applau...
Simon Hughes | 497 c978 (Link to this contribution) I will take one more intervention in a second and then I will press on. We have worded the motion i...
Simon Hughes | 497 c977 (Link to this contribution) I accept that. At our conference last month, we made it clear that the international agreement—the P...
Andrew Smith | 497 c978 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. In welcoming this opportunity to reaffirm our su...
Simon Hughes | 497 c979 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely correct. I had the privilege of being at the launch of the 10:10 campaign outside...
Lembit Opik | 497 c979 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend saying that the strength of the motion and the narrative that he is putting forwar...
Simon Hughes | 497 c978 (Link to this contribution) I can deal with both those questions, and the answer is yes. I am calling on the Government as a who...
Mark Lazarowicz | 497 c978 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Like many in the House, I have personally signed...
Joan Walley | 497 c979 (Link to this contribution) We want to be bold in Stoke-on-Trent. We want to sign up to the 10:10 campaign, and it is vital that...
David Kidney | 497 c1021 (Link to this contribution) I have time for one intervention.
Nia Griffith | 497 c1021-2 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that, while the Liberal Democrat motion makes no mention of costings, the ...
Simon Hughes | 497 c979-80 (Link to this contribution) I could be distracted down that road, and I am very happy to have that debate. There is perfectly re...
David Kidney | 497 c1022 (Link to this contribution) I confirm what my hon. Friend says. This country already has a good track record on energy efficienc...
Baroness Kramer | 497 c980 (Link to this contribution) In condemning the third runway and expansion at Heathrow, my hon. Friend anticipated my point, but d...
Simon Hughes | 497 c980-1 (Link to this contribution) I say to my hon. Friend, who has led our work on this issue, that it always seemed to me entirely in...
Greg Mulholland | 497 c981 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend share my frustration that the Government have not sufficiently linked those very...
Simon Hughes | 497 c979 (Link to this contribution) Of course I accept what the hon. Lady says. She has a very good track record. I was present at the a...
Graham Stuart | 497 c979 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has rightly said that we need to be bold, not timid. Is not this therefore the ti...
David Chaytor | 497 c981 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Simon Hughes | 497 c981 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right, which is why we have said that one of the most useful things that we can do...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c982-3 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from "House" to the end of the Question and add:""welcomes ...
Simon Hughes | 497 c981-2 (Link to this contribution) No. I really want to move to a conclusion now, as a huge number of colleagues want to contribute to ...
Alan Simpson | 497 c1015-6 (Link to this contribution) I fully endorse the 10:10 campaign and proposals, and I hope that the House will fully endorse them ...
Lynne Jones | 497 c1016 (Link to this contribution) Given that huge numbers of the public use public buildings and that behavioural change could take pl...
Chloe Smith | 497 c1014-5 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Deputy Speaker for giving me the chance to speak, and I thank the Liberal Democrats for ...
Michael Meacher | 497 c1013-4 (Link to this contribution) The Liberal Democrat motion deals with climate change leadership, but I think that by any standards ...
Tim Farron | 497 c1012 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady has read my mind, as I was about to mention that. About one in three of the bags of fo...
Lynne Jones | 497 c1012 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman going to mention the increased emissions as a result of our huge food waste? T...
Tim Farron | 497 c1011-2 (Link to this contribution) In supporting the motion, I shall restrict my comments exclusively to the Government’s failure to de...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c1011 (Link to this contribution) What I actually said was that the Chinese Government set much more store by short-term action than b...
Barry Gardiner | 497 c1010 (Link to this contribution) I will tell hon. Members how the Liberal Democrats in Brent sign up to the 10:10 campaign. Under the...
Hugh Bayley | 497 c1019 (Link to this contribution) I shall ask a question that I asked of Conservative Members. Earlier this week, the Commission decid...
Martin Horwood | 497 c1018-9 (Link to this contribution) Copenhagen is our last best chance to avoid catastrophe. For 30 years we have known about man-made c...
David Kidney | 497 c1021 (Link to this contribution) We have had 17 excellent speeches. Although the tone of the debate has been sparky, as a couple of h...
Martin Horwood | 497 c1019-21 (Link to this contribution) I was giving credit to the Commission for the work that it has done, but I am afraid that on the 10:...
Lynne Jones | 497 c1017 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
David Heath | 497 c1016-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a delight to hear the hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson) talk about fuel poverty...
Linda Gilroy | 497 c1017-8 (Link to this contribution) Like my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Barry Gardiner), I regret the tone of the debate. A...
David Heath | 497 c1017 (Link to this contribution) I have only one minute left. What we have done in this House is considerable, and the Government sh...
Alan Simpson | 497 c1016 (Link to this contribution) I do not believe that it is impossible for the Government to achieve that 10 per cent. reduction. On...
Nigel Griffiths | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) I am not a Johnny-come-lately to the environmental cause, having joined Friends of the Earth shortly...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c1006 (Link to this contribution) The fact is that United States started from a completely different point, because we had done so muc...
Lord Deben | 497 c1006-7 (Link to this contribution) I must tell the hon. Lady that that is not true. If she goes through the measures put forward by the...
Simon Hughes | 497 c1004 (Link to this contribution) I ask the right hon. Gentleman, who is very knowledgeable, to accept two points. First, the first 10...
Elliot Morley | 497 c1004 (Link to this contribution) It may well; I accept that point. That is why I greatly welcomed what the Minister said about the ob...
Lord Deben | 497 c1005-6 (Link to this contribution) I will continue, if I may. The Climate Change Act 2008, rather than being a great Government triump...
Oliver Heald | 497 c1005 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Lord Deben | 497 c1005 (Link to this contribution) I have shown that I support the Government when they do the right things in this area. I honour the ...
Elliot Morley | 497 c1004-5 (Link to this contribution) I agree with most of those points. It is quite likely that the first 10 per cent. reductions are ach...
Speaker | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) Order. When a Member says he is not going to give way and it is clear that he will not give way, it ...
Nigel Griffiths | 497 c1008-9 (Link to this contribution) Let me give the hon. Gentleman an example to put in his pipe and smoke. In the western isles, where ...
Lord Stunell | 497 c1009-10 (Link to this contribution) I rise to support my hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) and th...
Anne Main | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Martin Horwood | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Nigel Griffiths | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) No, there is not time. The Liberal Democrats are the party whose policy statements say it wants to ...
Martin Horwood | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Nigel Griffiths | 497 c1008 (Link to this contribution) There is not time in four minutes.
Joan Ruddock | 497 c988-9 (Link to this contribution) I need to reach some further points and to explain—[Interruption.] I have not rubbished 10:10. It is...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c986 (Link to this contribution) I intend to explain things and I just ask all hon. Members to be patient until I get through the nex...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c986 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson).
Jo Swinson | 497 c986-7 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for giving way to me at last; it just shows that it pays to persevere. I praise...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c987 (Link to this contribution) Regrettably, the hon. Lady has not been listening to what I have said. I have been making it very cl...
Simon Hughes | 497 c987-8 (Link to this contribution) Does the Minister not accept that it sounds to everybody else who is being encouraged to sign up to ...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c988 (Link to this contribution) I remind the hon. Gentleman that his party signed up to the carbon budgets—
Joan Ruddock | 497 c988 (Link to this contribution) It is. The carbon budgets are the result of years of effort. If a Department—or the whole public sec...
Martin Horwood | 497 c986 (Link to this contribution) I slightly regret the tone of the statements that the Minister has just made, because she is casting...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) No real reason, except that those figures were plucked out of green air. Leadership means taking res...
Barry Gardiner | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman spoke of the necessity for frameworks, which he has supported. I welcome that, bu...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) There often seems to be a healthy consensus in UK politics on climate change, even if we do not talk...
Bill Wiggin | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) On Government targets, it was the Minister who said that every new job should be a green job. That w...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c990-1 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. Labour just doesn’t get it. The Government still have an old-fashioned backward-looking 20th...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful point. Is not Labour looking for excuses not to support the ...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) The most important thing about the 10:10 campaign is that it instils a sense of urgency into the age...
Peter Ainsworth | 497 c990 (Link to this contribution) Was not one of the most telling remarks made by the Minister in her contribution, when criticising t...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c989 (Link to this contribution) I begin by congratulating the Liberals on calling this Opposition day debate. It is not a catch-all ...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) I shall endeavour to make some progress, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) I shall take an intervention from the hon. Member for Regent's Park and Kensington, North (Ms Buck)....
Karen Buck | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) The 10:10 campaign has enormous strength, and is not its beauty due to the fact that it is a genuine...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has to understand that nobody—certainly nobody in this House who sits on the Opposition...
Graham Stuart | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, not only will the 2010 target on emissions be missed,...
Speaker | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker) seems to be whipping up interventions...
Speaker | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) Order. The right hon. Gentleman should not attempt to put too much in an intervention, especially if...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) I thoroughly agree with the right hon. Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce). The trouble with this Gove...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) I would not have argued in any way for the motion. The situation is very clear to us: we have a prog...
Hugh Bayley | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the fact that the House of Commons Commission, which is res...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) I do not know, but I would not mind laying a decent bet that there was a Labour majority, probably o...
Simon Hughes | 497 c993 (Link to this contribution) Many people will be encouraged by what the hon. Gentleman has said. As his party is supporting the m...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c993-4 (Link to this contribution) I think that Vestas closing down plant in the UK has less to do with the micro-politics of the Isle ...
David Chaytor | 497 c993 (Link to this contribution) The motion requires""all public sector bodies…to make it their policy to achieve a 10 per cent. redu...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c993 (Link to this contribution) I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a figure off the top of my head, but I can tell him that Conservati...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) Would the hon. Gentleman mind if I finished my response to the previous intervention first? We cert...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c992-3 (Link to this contribution) I shall try to make some progress now, but I shall try to take Members’ interventions a little later...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) For a start, we do not instruct our councils to do anything. We certainly encourage them, and we wil...
Hugh Bayley | 497 c992 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Hugh Bayley | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) There is not a Labour majority; the Commission is a cross-party body chaired by Mr. Speaker.
Hugh Bayley | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) No, there is not a Labour majority.
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman will find that although it may be cross-party, there is still a Labo...
Oliver Heald | 497 c994-5 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that if firm, practical action along the lines of 10:10 were taken in this...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c994 (Link to this contribution) I am not going to get dragged into that, but it is unfortunate if the House has turned down an oppor...
Colin Challen | 497 c995 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c995 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. We need action, not words, and when better than in such serious economic times as these ...
Colin Challen | 497 c995 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I apologise to the House for intervening, but I have something ...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c995 (Link to this contribution) I will, but then I will try to make some progress. I had expected this to be the usual genteel outin...
Speaker | 497 c996 (Link to this contribution) Order. I say to the hon. Gentleman: please show restraint. We have 18 hon. Members who still want to...
Rob Marris | 497 c996 (Link to this contribution) I think the House will know what I am going to say. The world is changing out there: already from cl...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c997 (Link to this contribution) Before the right hon. Gentleman gets too carried away, can we just remember that the only reason why...
Lord Prescott | 497 c997 (Link to this contribution) I have listened to many of these debates and had the privilege of being involved in the Kyoto negoti...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c996 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I shall try to bring my remarks to a close. The hon. Member for Wolve...
Speaker | 497 c998 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) must not ask a question and then kee...
Lord Prescott | 497 c998 (Link to this contribution) I do wish the hon. Gentleman would go and talk to his Tory council and see what is actually happenin...
Graham Stuart | 497 c998 (Link to this contribution) By forcing policy on people—as the former Deputy Prime Minister liked to do in all his policy areas—...
Lord Prescott | 497 c997-8 (Link to this contribution) Again, the hon. Gentleman shows his ignorance. Let me tell him this: presumably, there was some lead...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c999 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) made it clear that the L...
Karen Buck | 497 c1000 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman feels strongly that Parliament has to commit to the 10:10 campaign today, b...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c999-1000 (Link to this contribution) I shall not take the hon. Gentleman’s intervention, but I will anticipate it. He said that the House...
Lord Prescott | 497 c998 (Link to this contribution) The real issue is achieving agreement at Copenhagen—
Lord Prescott | 497 c999 (Link to this contribution) No, because other hon. Members wish to speak. I do not think that the European deal, which is based...
Oliver Heald | 497 c999 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c1000 (Link to this contribution) Hang on. I did not like the last bit of the hon. Lady’s intervention. So 10:10 is a gimmick? Is that...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c1000 (Link to this contribution) I am anxious to let other people make their speeches. The point that I want to get across is that a...
Elliot Morley | 497 c1002-3 (Link to this contribution) I am very pleased to follow the right hon. Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce). I know the amount of w...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c1002 (Link to this contribution) Well, I take that as a given, but it is important that that qualification is written in and the unde...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c1000-2 (Link to this contribution) I cannot take another intervention as others need to speak. I will come to what the right hon. Memb...
Lord Bruce of Bennachie | 497 c1000 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the Minister’s intervention, and I accept her sincerity. On the other hand, the Ho...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c1000 (Link to this contribution) I have defended, and explained, the Government’s position. I have made no mention of the House and i...
Lynne Jones | 497 c1003 (Link to this contribution) On that point, since the Government have already set themselves long-term but very challenging targe...
Elliot Morley | 497 c1003 (Link to this contribution) If the Government were to sign up to a target that they were not sure they could deliver, I suspect ...
Dari Taylor | 497 c984 (Link to this contribution) I have no problem with what the Government are doing. It is focused and it is delivering, and the 10...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c984 (Link to this contribution) I intend to deal with those aspects of the Government’s policy in due course. I wanted to put the Ho...
Andrew Murrison | 497 c984 (Link to this contribution) Does the Minister accept that not all sustainable technologies are equal? Does she agree that when w...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c983-4 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to answer the hon. Gentleman’s specific question. I shall deal with the general issues th...
Peter Ainsworth | 497 c983 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has failed to answer the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Hol...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c983 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the hon. Gentleman is referring to Tory councils. I will come to the Government’s record, wh...
Graham Stuart | 497 c983 (Link to this contribution) Britain has indeed taken a leading role in international negotiations, and I know that our embassies...
Speaker | 497 c984 (Link to this contribution) Order. I did say to the House that a lot of interventions would do terrible damage to the number of ...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c984 (Link to this contribution) Let me assure my hon. Friend that, in looking across the whole of the economy, we are also of course...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c985 (Link to this contribution) I will not give way now, as I wish to make some progress. When we go abroad and urge other nations ...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c985-6 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is a little patient, I shall come to that. No country has done more. I remind...
Lord Foster of Bath | 497 c985 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for giving way, and may I add to the praise that has already been heap...
Rob Marris | 497 c985 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for what the Government have done, but I am bitterly disappointed, although unsurprise...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c985 (Link to this contribution) Yes, but I will have to respond to Mr. Deputy Speaker’s comments shortly.
Joan Ruddock | 497 c985 (Link to this contribution) I will go on to explain that our emissions have reduced in terms of the economy as a whole. That is ...
Lord Deben | 497 c986 (Link to this contribution) I have never been slow to support the Government when they have done the right things, but surely th...
Speaker | 497 c976 (Link to this contribution) I inform the House that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister. Be...
Barry Gardiner | 497 c1011 (Link to this contribution) Hansard will show what the hon. Gentleman said. I want to turn to the real point, which was mention...
Simon Hughes | 497 c977 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) first, if the right ho...
David Howarth | 497 c1022 (Link to this contribution) claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36). Question put forthwith, That the Question be n...
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c991 (Link to this contribution) I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart).
Lord Barker of Battle | 497 c995-6 (Link to this contribution) I certainly cannot do that, and I have to plead guilty: I have not read all the report. Even if I fe...
Joan Ruddock | 497 c986 (Link to this contribution) I shared some of the right hon. Gentleman’s criticisms of that programme in the past, but it has bee...
Subjects
Conservation Climate change Environment protection Energy Government departments Planning permission Public bodies Public expenditure Standards Renewable energy Carbon emissions
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
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