Climate Change Bill [HL]

I support Amendments Nos. 48 and 49A, although Amendments Nos. 50B, 51A and 53A are a bridge too far for me: this is a good idea that has been rather overworked. Nevertheless, it is a good idea. As the noble Lord just said, it is important that the Committee on Climate Change should take account of the impacts of climate change in thinking about the pace at which the targets should be taken forward. Climate change is important only because of its impacts on people and on the environment; otherwise, it simply exists in a vacuum. It will be vital for the committee to have before it information about the impacts of climate change as they are experienced at that time and the best possible information to anticipate what the impacts will emerge as. Later amendments would put in place a mechanism for the adaptation agenda similar to the one for the mitigation and target-setting agendas. If that happens, it would be important for the Committee on Climate Change to have information about these impacts in order to inform its decisions. I do not believe that it would overburden this part of the Bill simply to state that the committee needs to take account of the impacts on people and the environment as part of its deliberations. That should be right up there as a fundamental part of the committee’s deliberations. The committee could then decide whether it needed to quicken the pace, toughen the effort and urge us all on because the impacts were becoming increasingly deep at any time.