Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 170: 170: Clause 48, page 21, line 19, after ““Kingdom”” insert ““and the rest of the world”” The noble Baroness said: I move Amendment No. 170 on behalf of my noble friends Lady Northover and Lord Avebury. The amendment takes us to international issues again, as it suggests that the report to be prepared on the impact of climate change should look wider than just the UK, to which the Bill is confined. The Minister may say that the phrase, "““containing an assessment of the risks for the United Kingdom””," in Clause 48 implies an assessment of the state of the rest of the world. However, my noble friends’ amendment asks that the rest of the world be explicitly stated in the Bill. Evidence is clear that the poorest countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, and those least able to adapt—the islands of Tuvalu were a dramatic illustration of this on the BBC last night—will be hit first and hardest. When we consider how little land in the world is fit for growing food, or the speed at which soil is being eroded and the importance of preserving forested areas, as we have discussed numerous times in our consideration of the Bill, we can see what the pressures are—water shortages, food shortages, instability and migration. I need not rehearse those any further. Why should we ask for this to be in the Bill? It should be in the Bill because our efforts here in the UK are directly related to what is happening in the rest of the world. So they should be, as they are the fundamental reason why we have chosen to bring forward the Bill and why the Government feel as strongly about the Bill as we do. Every time we fail a target, should we do so, a real price is paid in someone else’s life in a different part of the world. Some effects of the Bill may make life somewhat different for UK citizens, so we shall have to make different plans and choices, such as living nearer to where we work. It is important that those choices are seen in the context of the rest of the world and that we see this as a global issue. The Bill rightly sees the target as ours to set, although there is still some debate to be had on how much of that target we shall meet by overseas credits. I am sure that we will come to a conclusion on that at Report. This amendment is a chance to set the context of our efforts regularly and visibly on a global basis. I beg to move.