Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, it might be convenient if I spoke at this stage to Amendment No. 145, which the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, has joined me in tabling. I must apologise for having tabled amendments when I have taken so little part in the Bill, but it seemed of such importance that I desired to try my luck. Clause 27 provides for the committee to give advice on contributions to meeting the carbon targets of the various sectors of the economy. That is fine. However, as the White Papers of 2003 and 2007 make clear, a quarter of carbon emissions come from households and, in addition, some 10 per cent come from private passenger cars, making a total of 35 per cent of emissions which are outside the scope of the committee's advisory role. That seems surprising, because if one thing is clear, it is that we need a major contribution from that sector. The Government are not saying in the White Papers for a moment that they cannot influence consumption by the household sector as a whole, to which my amendment refers—they list ways in which it can do so. The Energy Saving Trust has written to me with proposals for further enhancing the contribution of the sector. So the proposals are there. When I read the 2007 White Paper I saw, around about the middle, a table showing how cost-effectively the target of 60 per cent might be met and giving projections for what might be reasonable expectations from various sectors, one of which is private households. The expectation is a fairly modest one; only one-third, compared with the overall target of 60 per cent. The Energy Saving Trust says in its letter that it thinks that they should be aiming for 60 per cent. That is another reason why the matter should be open to consideration and advice to the Government. If I have interpreted the White Papers correctly, the 2003 White Paper refers to an objective of moving towards a 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2010, taking 1990 as a base. It says that we had achieved a reduction of 8 per cent by 1999, which is fair progress. However, it also acknowledged that we had fallen back to 5 per cent in 2001, though it looked forward to a recovery in 2002. When I looked with a magnifying glass at the very small footnotes to an appendix to the 2007 White Paper I saw—if I read it right—that by 2006 we were still at 5 per cent, whereas the target is 20 per cent, or moving towards it. That indicates the difficulty of meeting the target. Finally, in earlier discussions, we talked about whether the target of 60 per cent is enough. However, the economy will have doubled by 2050 compared with its 1990 base, so that is really equivalent to 80 per cent per unit of industrial or commercial activity. We need the help of the household sector, both in the home and the car, and it is material to add to the role of this committee the opportunity and duty to advise the Government on what the household sector might contribute.