Climate Change Bill [HL]

In the debate on the previous amendment the Minister rightly pointed out that there was an international protocol for emissions and therefore not much dispute as to what the figures should say. Carbon removal is very different. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, made the point that, going back to 1990, the figures on how much carbon sequestration was taking place remain largely unknown. It is a question of trying to determine soil organic content, tree growth and much else besides. You might say that the monitoring and assessment is a moving target; there is no international protocol that I know of that can help. This is helpful because the figure for reductions, rather than emissions, will be nothing like as obvious as we might assume.