Climate Change Bill [HL]

This has become an interesting process as the Minister manages to distinguish between methodology and mythology. Some people regard our approach to climate change as mythology but we are determined to turn it into methodology. Time might tell that what we consider to be methodology has become mythology. However, effective risk assessment identifies a specific risk in its many forms in general situations and in very specific, individual situations. It would not be feasible to have an assessment of the risk of climate change worldwide at a level of detail that could be useful without an enormous amount of work, although we certainly sympathise with the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, in her efforts to have the situation in the world taken into account. I was searching through the Bill to see whether the Committee on Climate Change would be required to produce this report but I could not find anything on that. The Secretary of State already has to report on this and that, and it is an interesting question where all these reports will emanate from. The question of risk assessment is likely to be dealt with by the Met Office Hadley Centre. That is a great relief because, with any luck, it will be provided without any further charge to those with responsibility. We on this side recognise the global scope of climate change and that our actions at home can affect the rest of the world, but I would have thought that, in producing this report on risk, any politician worth his salt would refer to the problems in the rest of the world just as a matter of giving context. A specific duty to include risk assessments for the entire planet places a very large burden on the Secretary of State and whomever he asks to draw up his report, and it risks drawing attention away from the kind of information and detail that would allow the Government to minimise the risk domestically.