Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 77: 77: Clause 13, page 7, line 18, leave out ““1%”” and insert ““0.5%”” The noble Earl said: Amendments Nos. 77 and 78 propose to reduce the amount of carbon units that can be carried back from one period to the preceding budgetary period. That is, the latter period would be reduced so the previous period could be increased. We propose to reduce the amount we are allowed to borrow from the future from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent. As we have been saying all along, these are things for the scientists to decide. We have added the proviso in our amendment that this should be done subject to the approval of the climate change committee. Our reduction in the amount that can be used from a future budgetary period is a reflection of the scepticism felt on these Benches for allowing too much leeway in the budgets. Though we appreciate that there are external factors like the weather that might make this so-called banking and borrowing useful to a degree, we want to ensure that the budgets are robust and not pliable, especially under political pressure. I would be interested to hear how the Minister arrived at the figure of 1 per cent. Could he please explain? Essentially, failure to meet the budgets will be hidden. This has been one of the motivating factors in many of our amendments. Our historical contributions to global warming could already be considered borrowing from the future. We want to make sure that this ends. I beg to move.