Climate Change Bill [HL]

I take up the noble Lord’s point. I am pleased that he is supportive of carbon trading until 2050. It is absolutely certain that if the amendment is passed, in 2050 it will be killed stone dead. Buying carbon credits would have no value whatever to a UK business because it would not offset anything. That is exactly what would happen. If all the European Union and major industrialised countries were persuaded of that, India, China and other countries, having got a lot of benefit from investment in helping them to reduce emissions, would suddenly find that, by law, companies in this country would have no incentive to invest in carbon emissions reductions there. The noble Lord says in support of the proposal that he is in favour of emissions trading now, but there will on balance come a time where that will not be of any value. Carbon trading, after all, takes place only because it has value. Under this proposal, in 2050, it would have no value to a business in this country. We have a made a great point about this being a leader in helping international negotiations but we will be giving a message to the countries that might need investment that, come 2050, it will stop.