Climate Change Bill [HL]

I am grateful for those last remarks from the noble Earl, Lord Selborne. He identifies the difficulty of having one base year when the base year may not be particularly effective in certain areas that we wish to measure. I want to assure the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, that we are at one with him in seeking to provide the information that gives an accurate comparative analysis so that the nation can identify the progress being made. That is of the greatest importance. In a moment I will cross swords a little with the noble Lord on Amendment No. 74, to which we take considerable exception. I am more positive about Amendment No. 68. Clause 4 defines a carbon budget as, "““an amount for the net UK carbon account””" for each budgetary period. Clause 12 requires the Secretary of State to report for each year of the budget period on the amount of the net UK carbon account for that year. The Clause 12 statements will provide all the information needed to calculate progress against the budget for each year of the period. I recognise that the noble Lord made a strenuous and convincing attempt to argue for greater transparency of progress. We will look at the clause as it stands and see if we can meet that position as we progress through the Bill. We cannot accept the actual amendment. I ask the noble Lord to recognise that although we appreciate his objectives, we cannot accept his amendment. It would require comparison with the emissions of each greenhouse gas in 1990. The noble Earl, Lord Selborne, has identified why base year 1990 simply may not be effective for certain areas. Clause 20 proposes that the Secretary of State should select a base year other than 1990 for different non-CO2 gases if a comparison is to be drawn, recognising that 1990 is not a good base year for the accuracy of the whole picture. I hope the noble Lord recognises that although I accept his intentions and will seek to make progress on the probe that he sets out in his amendment, we cannot accept the amendment as it stands. I ask the noble Lord to recognise that although we appreciate the sentiment behind Amendment No. 74, we simply do not think that it would work. The purpose of the Clause 12 statement is to set out clearly the quantity of emissions occurring in the UK, the number of carbon units used and the net UK carbon account. If we simply referred to the total carbon units, as Amendment No. 74 proposes, we would fail to capture a situation in which carbon units were worth different amounts. In this situation what would matter is not how many carbon units there were but what the carbon units were worth, which may change. The terminology of amounts of emissions and carbon units is used continually throughout, because of the point that I just made. I hope the noble Lord will recognise that we are therefore very resistant to changing the terminology of the Bill in accordance with Amendment No. 74. We will certainly look at Amendment No. 68, although I have indicated that the amendment will not quite do. We recognise his powerful plea for greater transparency and will see what we can do to meet that at a later stage.