Climate Change Bill [HL]

I, too, support the principle of a compliance mechanism. I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, for speaking so glowingly about some of the ideas that were put forward when we gave evidence to the Joint Committee. However, the nature of a compliance mechanism is not necessarily captured by this amendment, as we need something that will drive change. We are a bit adrift from our trajectory for meeting current targets, and no amount of words of commitment to meeting targets will address that. Practical measures are needed, and that probably means new policy and perhaps new investment. That is why I thought that the proposition put forward in the evidence sessions to the Joint Committee that I helped to present was quite neat and cunning. I shall not go into it in great detail, save to say that under the proposed compliance mechanism, if the targets at the end of the five-year period were not met, the Government would have to buy enough international credits and make sufficient contributions to a domestic fund to meet the gap. In that way, we would be clear that new funding was going into the system to help to drive reductions. The most important thing there would be that a UK-based fund would be used to help to implement carbon reduction technologies within the UK faster than would otherwise have happened. Clearly, there would be a need to be fast because the target had not been met. The intention behind our proposition was to say, ““Let’s find a way that asks the Government not just to report on what else is going to happen but to put their money where their mouth is and drive change for the future””. I am sure that there are ways in which that could be worked up and elaborated on by those who are better at these things than I am. However, it seems to me that judicial review will clearly not be enough, and if one asks what the sanction is for non-compliance and judicial review is offered, that will clearly not do the trick. Therefore, if the sort of cunning proposal that I described is not the answer, we must put the Minister on the spot. The Secretary of State for the Environment and the Prime Minister are currently making very strong statements about the Bill being a legally binding provision, but can the noble Lord say how the Bill will be given teeth through a more effective compliance mechanism?