Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am in a strange position in this area. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, mentioned the word ““depoliticise”” but that can also be substituted for ““de-democratise””. We need to be careful about this area. That is why there may be a tension between those on these Benches and those on the Conservative Benches regarding the degree of independence, strength and role of the climate change committee, although we are moving in the same direction. The list of things that have to be reported on in this area are those on which the Government have to report on internationally anyway. Most of them already have to be calculated. So this amendment is in the wrong place. The list of things that have to be done by the climate change committee are calculations that, if anything, should be audited; the climate change committee should not necessarily have a separate section to recheck the work that has been done anyway by Defra. I am not convinced in this area. Depoliticisation can mean de-democratisation. Work in this area has to be done by Government and reported internationally. There is a risk of doing this twice. The climate change committee has more important things to do in this area. I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, will come back to me and put me right.