Debate on the Address

My Lords, the pleasure falls to me of welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, who just made her maiden speech. The noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, said that it is a test, but it is one that she passed with flying colours. Most of us remember the fear associated with our maiden speech very well. The noble Baroness brings a wealth of experience, especially from her long work with Unison, where she championed fighting low pay and discrimination at work. She mentioned her role on the boards of Shelter and the Empty Homes Agency, but she missed out the topical fact that she is on the board of the School Food Trust. She will have many opportunities to raise that issue in the coming weeks and months. Also, as this is the agriculture and environment day on the gracious Speech, she missed out the fact that, being a rambler, she may have a lot to add to the debate about access. For many people, the gracious Speech seemed to be divided into two areas: Home Office Bills, as the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, said, and climate change. I do not think that we have previously come across a Speech that has been divided into two such strange areas: one having many Bills and one having only one. Climate change is topical because the publication of the Stern report seems to have changed the very nature of the argument. It is difficult to find someone who claims that climate change is not a real issue or is not taking place, although I found someone at the school gate this morning who mentioned that the Bill was in the Queen’s Speech, saying, ““A little bit of climate change is obviously a good thing””. I thought that that was an interesting attitude to take. Climate change is taking place. As the right reverend Prelate pointed out, we are producing only 2 per cent of the world's production of carbon dioxide, but that is a frightening statistic when we consider how many millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide involved. We should not forget that, as the instigators of the industrial revolution, this country has an historic legacy in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. There are now about 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. For how many of those are we responsible? The wealth of this country is based on the fact—I cannot remember which Minister said this in a speech—that carbon has no cost. We have always believed that carbon has no cost, but that is no longer the case. The Climate Change Bill is also very unusual in that it has almost been pushed forward not by politicians but by the electorate themselves. Interestingly, it was difficult to get a handle on what was going to be in the Bill until two days ago, but people’s expectations of what it will include are far higher than most politicians believe, expect or even feel they can cope with. All of us across the political spectrum will be running to catch up with people’s expectations. I therefore believe that year-on-year targets, although not part of the Bill at the moment, will end up in it because there will be such a massive move. I understand why the Government are opposed to year-on-year targets to reduce carbon production, but the major problem is that there is always a reason why our carbon footprint will slip. Last year, the increase in gas prices meant that many coal-fired power stations were brought back on line so that energy costs could be brought down. However, that had massive implications for the amount of carbon that we as a country are producing. Will this be seen as acceptable in the future? We talk about 10 years to the tipping point. Many people believe that we have gone past that tipping point, but, if we are talking about such small time-scales, is it acceptable if we fall one year behind any targets that we set? If we do not have mandatory targets, it will be very difficult to ensure that we push people into agreeing to them. I recently spoke to some Liberal Democrats at an LGA event. They were not particularly interested in the whole concept of targets for carbon, but I asked them to remember what happened where there were targets for waste; suddenly, local authorities had to stop everything else that they were doing and focus almost entirely on recycling and waste management. The same will happen with targets for carbon. When we talk about targets, we talk about businesses and local communities, but the burden will fall not only on them but on Government, on local authorities, and on employers. I have recently had a fourth child. During the labour, I was lobbied about the state of midwifery, but that is a debate for another time. The NHS is one of the largest employers in the country, and we must grasp the nettle and accept that it will have to face major cuts in power usage. It is also assumed that we cannot somehow bring about a reduction in power usage. I find that incredible, because it is easy; it is easy for the individual, in companies, and in Government to take the first steps. It is not easy to achieve a 90 per cent reduction, but it is not impossible to achieve a 20 or 30 per cent reduction. I decided to change all the light bulbs in my house and to stop using the tumble dryer. That has had a marked effect on the bill that I pay. While I was in the attic trying to fit some insulation, I heard the noble Baroness, Lady Young, say on Radio 4 that everyone should have insulation, so I felt rather good about myself at that point. Reductions will be made by individuals and elsewhere at every level. Many people mention China and ask why we should bother, but the Chinese are particularly concerned about climate change. At the moment, a vast amount of water is coming off the glaciers, probably due to climate change, but that will run out soon and there will be water shortages and an increase in temperature. This will cut the number of rice harvests in some areas from three a year to perhaps one. On that basis, China will not be able to feed itself. We should therefore not assume that the Chinese are not taking this seriously. There is a rapid move to industrialisation, but I think that they understand the real issue. We can change things without affecting our lifestyle. We could introduce mandatory targets to reduce standby, which takes up 10 per cent of the electricity used in the country, to one watt. That should not be impossible. I believe that there are moves afoot to see whether we should outlaw the use of filament light bulbs. Many people say that they must keep filament light bulbs because of the quality of the light. However, we are sitting in a Chamber where only last year the light bulbs were changed to energy-saving ones and I am not sure that any noble Lord has noticed the difference. That reflects the better quality of energy-saving light bulbs and apparently has saved £3,000 a year on the electricity bill because the others were each 500-watt bulbs; it is quite a saving in energy, although I cannot recall the exact figures. There are things the Government can do. The Private Member’s Bill on climate change that went through last year made interesting points about localised micro-generation and making changes to the planning system. I think that we will have a number of debates with the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, over issues such as permitted development. A particularly important point is that we now have permitted development orders going through to allow up to 50 kilowatts of micro-generation capacity on a house. Why can that not be changed to permit up to 50 kilowatts of electricity generation on agricultural land? That would have a major effect in changing power supplies for certain areas. Other issues such as the decentralisation of energy will have major effects, but I would go far beyond my time if I were to go into them. What really needs to be addressed in our debates is that while we think we are leading the way, I think we are going to be pushed a great deal further. An indication of that arose at our conference this year. We raised the issue of green taxes. A great deal of discussion arose on how we would be shot down in flames because everyone would be upset by the proposal, but I have had a large number of letters of support saying that this is the right move. We should not be scared of the fact that we are going to have to impose limits, taxes and regulations. The country actually wants us to be far more proactive in these areas.