Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 68: 68: Clause 12, page 6, line 28, at end insert— ““( ) state the amount for 1990 of UK emissions, UK removals and net UK emissions of that gas,”” The noble Lord said: I return to the fray. We are trying to deal with the baseline year, remove some unnecessary words from the Bill and tidy up the language to make it more precise. I am moving Amendment No. 68, but will also speak to Amendment No. 74. I do not expect it to be too controversial and hope the Minister will agree to this change. Amendment No. 68 is more substantial. As long as 1990 is the baseline year, we on these Benches would like to ensure that annual reports have regard to the baseline year—the baseline on which the 2050 target is based. We want to avoid a situation in which it might appear that reductions have been made in the short term, when little substantive change has occurred since the baseline year—or worse, as the case is now. Ministers often say that carbon emissions have decreased since 1990, but, on the current Government’s watch, emissions have increased since 1997. It is true that this increase has been smaller than the decrease from 1990 to 1997, which means that there has been a small decrease overall. That paints a rather rosier picture of emissions than perhaps is justified. I appreciate that climate change has not been taken as seriously in the past as it is now. It is of course this Government who are bringing forth this very important legislation, which we support. The purpose of our amendment is to ensure that, no matter who is in government, we have an accurate picture of our progress. We cannot risk being misled into thinking that we are performing better than we are. We need to ensure that our understanding and the public’s understanding of our success in reducing carbon emissions is as accurate as possible. I beg to move.