Climate Change Bill [HL]

I first apologise to the Committee for not having been present on its first day as I was in Moscow with Sub-Committee C of the EU Committee. I return with an even worse cold than when I went, so I hope that the Committee will forgive me if I end up croaking for the rest of the evening. I was on the Joint Committee along with my noble friend Lord Caithness. There, we supported the system of five-year budgets but strongly recommended the setting of indicative annual milestones. For much the same reasons as my noble friend, I looked with some doubt at Amendment No. 22, which was moved by the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale. It is ill-defined and it does not really say how it would fit into the budget system, except that the noble Lord repeated that his party does not, in any case, believe in five-year budgets. I was, therefore, pleased to read my noble friend’s amendment on my return from Moscow, as that seems greatly superior. However, like my noble friend Lord Taylor, I was extremely interested in Amendment No. 31, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord May of Oxford. I am sorry that he is not with us because that amendment contains a number of extremely constructive propositions. It would thus be very helpful. As this debate will not lead us to a final conclusion, we will clearly have to return to it on Report when we have heard what the Government say. However, I hope that they will give careful consideration to the points made in the amendment from the noble Lord, Lord May of Oxford, along with those from my noble friend, as those points form the foundation on which we could produce a better solution than the Bill presently contains.