Climate Change Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for his reply and noble Lords who participated in the debate, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, whose contribution went some way to recognising the argument from the Opposition Benches. It is interesting that the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis—in all innocence, I think—revealed the weakness of what the Government are seeking to achieve when he suggested putting the word ““advisory”” in the title. As the Minister rightly said, all the Government want is an advisory committee; they do not want it to have any executive power. There is a real argument between the Opposition and the Government on this issue. I suspect that when the Bill was first proposed the climate change committee was probably seen as being much more executive and powerful than has subsequently been presented in the Bill and the words of the Minister. Looking at how the Bill will operate, it creates great difficulties for future Governments if it has a purely advisory body with no executive function. I suspect that driving climate change initiatives across all government departments will be a momentous task which will need authority and direction. That is why a climate change committee—or, as we prefer, ““the commission on climate change””—is central to this purpose.