Climate Change Bill [HL]

I have no complaint about the decoupling. As the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, said, the Conservatives did not support the Liberal Democrats; I suppose that the Liberal Democrats did not support the Conservatives. I am the one who is being non-party political, because I am giving the same answer to both of them. The noble Baroness, Lady Byford, asked me to do precisely what I offered to do in the previous debate when I referred to Clause 28; that is, to take the comments away. I was not using the provisions as a defence for where we are now; I was saying that we will look at them again to see whether we can modify them to meet the points and desires expressed in this debate. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, referred to my saying that the UK does not have control over all the emissions. I should clarify that because I may have misled noble Lords. We have no control over the annual, year-on-year fluctuations in emissions from 50 per cent of the economy—I think that that is accepted—but the EU Emissions Trading Scheme covers half the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Government set the cap for them over five years. Over the budget period as a whole, we have control over the emissions. Within the emissions trading system, however, as colleagues know, companies are free to vary their annual emissions provided that they meet their obligations over the period as a whole. The Government have no control over the annual emissions from UK companies within the trading system. That was the practical reason that I was giving. I was not saying that we have no control whatever—there is control over the five years—but we have no control at all over how the obligations are practically operated by companies.