Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 140: 140: Schedule 1, page 34, line 38, at end insert— ““The Committee must take all reasonable steps to ensure effective public participation in the exercise of its functions.”” The noble Lord said: The effects of climate change are wide-ranging. We have touched on this many times during these debates. So, too, are the proposals and measures that will be taken to stop it. The climate change committee needs to take into account the effects of its proposals and strategies on the public. For this reason, we propose an amendment that requires an element of public consultation on the proposals. It was the Minister himself who presented the fourth side of the triangle, giving a quadrilateral element to our geometry, when he talked earlier this afternoon about public participation. The extent of this can be determined by the committee itself. However, we still feel that there needs to be some way in which there can be some public input into the ramifications of scientific investigation. We understand that the climate change committee should be able to assess what needs to be done from a scientific perspective. That is the purpose of our efforts to increase its independence. This amendment does not seek to water down this objective, or to weaken the idea of a committee that makes decisions based on scientific necessity. The amendment simply reflects that these necessities do not exist in a vacuum, and that the strategies developed should be open to consultation from the people that they will affect. I beg to move.