Climate Change Bill [HL]

At this point in the evening I do not want to delay the Committee on what is an extremely complicated issue. I have just been rereading the Joint Committee’s report, which covers several pages on this issue. However, it is worth putting the Joint Committee’s conclusion on the record, because it made some recommendations and I would like to have the Government’s response to them. The Joint Committee—on which the noble Lord who moved this amendment was a member, though he was not able to carry us wholly on his views while in committee—agreed on balance with the Government that it is reasonable for the Bill to focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. It went on to say that, "““this in no way relieves the Government of its responsibility to continue to reduce other greenhouse gases, (both by reasons of domestic necessity and our international obligations). Accordingly, it is essential to monitor all greenhouse gas emissions, in part so as to provide greater transparency when comparing UK performance against EU and Kyoto targets. We recommend that the Bill should be amended to require both the Government and the Committee on Climate Change to include within their monitoring and reporting a clear analysis of all emissions which contribute to global warming, including non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. We further recommend that this be done with the explicit intention of providing a stepping stone to a more comprehensive approach to setting targets across the whole range of greenhouse gases, were that approach to emerge as a result of future international negotiations””." I think that that is an important set of recommendations directly relating to the point made by the noble Lord who moved the amendment. I would be grateful if the Minister could give some indication of how the Government are going to respond to that recommendation.