Climate Change Bill [HL]

As there is some confusion here I shall start, at the risk of repeating myself after the last debate, by making a point about where the amendments add value to the Bill. The UK’s national emissions inventory publication is produced each year by independent consultants on the Government’s behalf. That is what happens now and what will continue to happen. The publication is respected, subject to peer review and supplied according to international guidelines. It is not something knocked up by Defra, far from it. Rigorous measures are in place to ensure the quality of the information, which is set out in line with the requirements of the Office for National Statistics, and is subject to further independent scrutiny under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Therefore we do not agree that the Committee on Climate Change should be required to lay before Parliament an annual statement of UK emissions. Not only would this be costly, it would definitely be potentially confusing if it duplicated the work of the official emissions inventory that the Government are already required to produce under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, we recognise that members of the Committee on Climate Change will be experts in their field and we are considering how best to ensure a constructive dialogue on the kind of issues we have covered in the last two debates. I apologise for this, but I shall refer to another clause, Clause 30(2), which states specifically that the committee may take on a role in assisting, "““in connection with the preparation of statistics relating to greenhouse gas emissions””." There are already in place well-established mechanisms which allow other non-departmental public bodies to contribute to issues of this kind. Obviously we are willing to look at how the committee or members of its secretariat could play a similar role because that makes sense, but we do not want duplication leading to confusion. I shall give an example. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the UK Government are obliged to have in place a national system to ensure that the inventory remains of the highest quality. In the UK this takes the form of a steering committee of experts and stakeholders, and we will certainly consider inviting members of the committee secretariat to the formal national system meetings to ensure that we are able to draw on their expertise in the inventory preparation process. In other words, there is a job to be done and the Committee on Climate Change has a role in it, but it certainly cannot be a job of duplication. Underlying some of the comments were indications of dodgy government statistics and dodgy government reports produced by government departments that we do not trust. But that does not happen. As I explained, the information is produced by independent contractors. It is peer reviewed to international standards and scrutinised by the UN framework and is in conformity with the Office for National Statistics. If anyone wants to come back on Report to say that it is not working and that claims have been made and so on, then that is fine. But no one has said that today. It is as though people are saying that the infrastructure for producing the emissions inventory does not exist, but it does exist. It is important that the Committee on Climate Change is locked into it, but not in a way that would duplicate the work and thus lead to confusion. We will certainly look further at how the network of the various bodies can be linked up properly. Obviously the Committee on Climate Change does not exist yet. It is the new kid on the block, as it were, and it is very important that its pronouncements and advice are based on the best available information. But it does not add to the proposals in this Bill to seek to duplicate what already exists.