Climate Change Bill [HL]

Perhaps it would be helpful if I added a further paragraph on that. If we ask ourselves how we know that the committee has taken all matters into account, I draw the Committee’s attention—at the risk of delaying things, which I do not want to do—to Clause 27, which relates to the functions of the committee and its advice in connection with carbon budgets. Clause 27 will require the committee to provide the reasons for its advice on carbon budgets. It will set out how it has arrived at its conclusions and how it has weighed up the costs and benefits and the risks associated with different abatement pathways so that we in Parliament, other stakeholders and the Government can understand why that carbon budget has been recommended. Therefore, jumping forward, there is a debate to be had and I think that answers to this debate are buried away in Clause 27.