Climate Change Bill [HL]

We have covered this ground before. The rolling targets feed into the very nature of the targets. We support that. That targets on a yearly basis should be looked at is common ground. The noble Lord, Lord Woolmer, has pointed out that a duty is being placed on the Secretary of State but, as we know, under the Bill there is no sanction against the Secretary of State if a target is not met, a point that was raised at Second Reading and probably ought to be looked at again. That is the major problem we have with all these provisions. The Minister said in response to the previous group of amendments that there might be certain issues that change, such as winter. I understand that certain aspects of trying to meet this year-on-year target will be difficult, especially in the area of energy generation. I was speaking to one of the energy companies this morning. Scottish and Southern Energy was talking about the type of power stations it will be looking at in the future. One of the problems all power stations have at the moment is that, although we are introducing a duty within the Bill, they have very little firm analysis of what type of power station regulation will allow them to build and what sort of return on investment will be achievable with differing government objectives. With carbon becoming one of the most important attributes, along with price and reliability, that we will have to consider when we discuss Ofgem’s responsibilities in the Energy Bill, there will be a problem with the targets since they cannot be met quite so easily on a year-by-year basis. When we discussed this issue in the break—the Statements served a purpose—it was suggested that we could take out the milestones and consider an internal delivery path, a mechanism that already exists, to judge the trajectory. The Minister has made the point that this is a difficult area, but that is something we should discuss in looking at this area. Those targets would be set between year one and year five, and there might be—for such reasons as a nuclear power station coming on-line or the London Array becoming operational in 2012—a significant effect on the yearly basis. It comes back to the major problem we face with all of these: although some noble Lords have not agreed with our assessment of the five-year plan, there is enormous potential for drift for reasons that are outside the powers of the Secretary of State for Defra. This is one of the problems with bringing other departments in. The Minister has given us an answer to the previous group of amendments. With the best will in the world, the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, are not much different, so I do not think he will not get a different response. I very much hope that the Minister will take on board this internal trajectory idea. It is one way that internal targets could be met on a yearly basis, without being set in stone in the ways that cause the Minister some problems.