Climate Change Bill [HL]

Before I thank the Minister for that response, I should say that the purpose of this amendment was not to hold the Minister to account for political gain. The issue on all sides of the Committee is that this is a complicated process. The Minister said that 50 per cent of carbon dioxide is outside the Government’s remit, but that is one of our major problems with the Bill. When people talk about emissions, they often mean emissions just from electricity, but there are emissions from agriculture, such as methane from sheep and land usage. There are major issues, but I dispute what the Minister said about their being completely outside the Government’s control, because, if we are looking at a 60 to 80 per cent target, certain things will not be outside the Minister’s control. That goes back to an earlier debate: if we are looking at a third runway at Heathrow, at what point does the massive amount of emissions that will come from that third runway feed in to this debate and who makes the decision? If it is just the Secretary of State at Defra, that will be a real issue. We have not moved this amendment on a political basis, although I have been lobbied by vast numbers of people who have written wonderful letters to me, saying, ““Dear Lord Redesdale, You’re taking part in the Climate Change Bill. Can you make it stronger? Thank you very much””. That is a fine form of lobbying. It seems that we are moving forward. We are not wedded to the wording in the amendments that we have tabled; there is value in the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, and it is unfortunate that the noble Lord, Lord May, is not here to debate his amendment, which I hope he will bring back another time. However, the Minister said that he might well look at this again and that some form of compromise can be reached and introduced into the Bill before the next stage. That is a very welcome position. On that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.