Treasury and Work and Pensions

I am most grateful for this opportunity to contribute to the Queen’s Speech debate. May I say what a pleasure it is to follow the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Mr. Kennedy), who gave a wide-ranging speech in his usual witty and charming manner? I will concentrate much more narrowly on tackling climate change while maintaining our competitiveness. Those two things are often presented as conflicting and contradictory, but I hope to show that we can achieve both. Something that astonished me about the Opposition amendment was the statement that they"““regret the absence of strong and binding measures to tackle climate change and environmental degradation””." It seems to me that arguably one of the most important measures in the Gracious Speech is the climate change Bill. Nothing could contrast more starkly than the weighty Stern report as the fashion-statement approach to environmental issues displayed by Opposition Members. The report is obviously right to begin with a statement of the ethical and scientific basis of the problems, but no one has really said such things more clearly or more precisely than John Locke in 1690:"““Each man is entitled to the fruits of his labour, as long as as much and as good is left for the next.””" On science, the Stern report has made it very clear that we are now up against an exceptionally tight timetable. We have only 10 to 15 years to stabilise and reduce emissions. That is particularly important in my constituency. At the rural end of my constituency in Upper Teesdale, unique biodiversity exists that has survived from the last ice age. Plants such as the spring gentian only grow in the north Pennines area of outstanding natural beauty. Those plants and that biodiversity will be completely destroyed by global warming. It is, of course, worth noting that while humans might have strategies for mitigation and adaptation, animals cannot be expected to have strategies for adaptation. On the vexed issue of targets, which have been much discussed, it is quite clear that annual targets to reduce emissions are not practical. I understand that five-year targets have been proposed because they tie in very neatly with the Kyoto machinery, but we have now taken to holding four-year Parliaments, so it seems to me that, to achieve proper accountability, we need to have three to four-year targets for our climate change objectives. Those of us who are concerned about the environment are frequently portrayed as romantic impossibilists, but Stern has shown that there is an economic case for action. At the other end of my constituency in Bishop Auckland, we have a manufacturing base that is already changing shape and showing how a new green model for the economy can operate. We have a monthly farmers’ market in Barnard Castle, where people can buy and eat local and seasonal food without the burden of air miles. We have the Farmway farmers’ co-operative, which is the first link in the supply chain for biofuels that goes through to Teesside. The Glaxo plant, which is the most energy efficient one in the world, has two windmills to supply its electricity. CAA Roofing has developed a new solar wall system to trap the sun’s heat for buildings. Teescraft Engineering is considering constructing wind turbines. Thorn Lighting has just decided to build a completely new plant. It has a research and development programme with Durham university for low organic lighting. That will involve the biggest change in the way that we light our houses since the invention of the light bulb. All those examples show that greening the economy can create new jobs. The Government’s policy of supporting science and encouraging links between industry and academia is absolutely vital. The Chancellor’s announcement of the energy technologies institute is one of the most forward-looking policies that we could have. We need to do more to simplify planning and building regulations, to reform the tax system and to provide one-stop advice. But the examples demonstrate that a cross-government approach is vital to ensuring that objectives lead to action. When we look across the board at the competitiveness of the economy, we need to consider those sectors with high energy use where the picture is obviously trickier. There are two examples in my constituency: a glass recycling plant, Potters-Ballotini, and Wienerberger’s Eldon brickworks. Both have had serious problems in the past two years because of high energy prices. In fact, both have had to close furnaces for several months at a time. Excellent chapters in the Stern report look at how we should address the needs of heavy industry. Table 11A is quite compendious and sets out statistics for UK production sectors in 123 different areas and shows that glass and bricks are 10 times more carbon intensive than the financial sector. However, I do not take the lesson from that that everybody can or should become a banker. The position of heavily energy intensive industries is a clear demonstration of the need for an internationally co-ordinated approach to climate change. There will be no environmental benefit if relatively efficient UK plant moves overseas where environmental standards are lower and from which transport costs are high. The Stern report suggests international trading agreements by sector, and I agree. Obviously, we do not want to impede major technological progress such as that by Thorn Lighting that I described earlier, but exporting all our heavy industry is unlikely to be the best environmental solution. Despite the 574 pages of the Stern report, there are further pieces of analysis that it would be helpful for us to have. The first is a comparison across the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of carbon intensity disaggregated by sector. Only with that can we set demanding and realistic targets. At the moment, the UK scores well overall, but that is because of the big contribution made by the City of London. However, we should not use that to have, for example, a relatively inefficient household sector.