Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, at this time of night, with the Bill progressing excellently, I do not want to strike a note of dissent, but I have to say that I will be watching with interest when the Bill goes down the other end, where Members of the Scottish Executive will be looking at it. Although everything here has been done in a positive way, the underlying tone, both here and in Committee, is of failure; that is, we will never get agreement on this, they do it differently north of the border, and what are we going to do if it does not work? It is nitpicking and expects failure. Since it was introduced, we have been trying to make devolution work. There are lots of issues in Whitehall where even today we are at the edge and we have discussions. Sometimes we agree; other times we do not. The noble Lord, Lord Teverson, asked me for an example. I will give him one. Tomorrow, although I have now forgotten the long title, the new farm animal genetics advisory committee will meet. It is a new non-departmental UK-wide public body that was set up without the slightest difficulty after discussions between Defra, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. That was done under the concordat and under our normal procedures for taking the Government forward with devolution when UK issues are involved. That is a good example. It was only today that we announced the membership. It will have its first meeting tomorrow. I have got that off my chest and I feel better about it now. Issues have been raised to which I want to respond. In the other place, there are representatives of the Scottish Executive, because of the results of the elections last year. There will therefore be a different debate there. I say in answer to the noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy, who I understand cannot be with us at this time of day, that the draft Climate Change Bill was published in March last year before the elections in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. For that reason, it made no provision on devolution, but a disclaimer stated that these issues were still to be agreed. Following the elections, the devolution aspects were agreed between June and September. The Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislative consent Motions in the autumn. It has been hinted that the Bill is not meeting with their approval. I am not putting words in their mouth or saying that they agree with every dot and comma, but they buy the package and the procedures in it. This group of amendments looks at various aspects of how the national authorities are involved in processes under the Bill. We discussed the overall issues in Committee. The provisions of the Bill have been agreed with the devolved Administrations and consent Motions have been passed. As I have mentioned previously, we are developing a detailed concordat with the devolved Administrations which will set out how we work with them to meet the Bill’s requirements. This is the best way to ensure that our efforts are properly co-ordinated. When we discussed the issue in Committee, one of the big questions raised was what the devolved Administrations were doing to tackle climate change. I hope that I can reassure your Lordships that all three are strongly committed to contributing to emissions reductions. For example, the Scottish Executive have recently launched consultation on a proposed Scottish climate change Bill and a target to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Within the One Wales agreement, Welsh Ministers have committed to a number of actions to address climate change, including an annual 3 per cent carbon-equivalent emission reduction in areas of devolved competence. The Assembly Government have also established a Climate Change Commission for Wales that will work towards building consensus on climate change in Wales and assist the development of new policies. The key driver for action on climate change in Northern Ireland is the Northern Ireland sustainable development strategy, which includes strategic objectives and targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2025. Specific actions include reducing electricity consumption by 1 per cent annually to 2012, making the government estate carbon neutral by 2015, improving energy efficiency in buildings and encouraging renewable energy sources. Perhaps I may give a little plug: virtually all that work in Northern Ireland was initiated and driven forward when Peter Hain became the Secretary of State. When we were direct rule Ministers, he made it a top priority to get cracking on it. It has been accepted and embraced by business and politicians in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Environment Minister has also made a commitment to reconsider a Northern Ireland emission reduction target once the certainty of the Northern Ireland emissions baseline has been established. So we think the Bill takes the right approach in working with the other authorities. Amendment No. 115, along with Amendment No. 95, would require the UK Government to publish the results of consultation with the devolved Administrations. It would not be right for the UK Government to be given that responsibility. It will be for each devolved Administration to decide whether it wishes to publish its representations. We have devolved: we have to let go from Westminster. If devolution is to work, those Administrations have to make that decision. In any case, the Secretary of State is under a duty to say how he has taken the representations into account. That would be difficult to do without broadly indicating what was in those representations in the first place. I hope that is the clarification and reassurance that the noble Lord is seeking. There are well established procedures for resolving differences between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations, as set out in the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding (Command Paper 5240). This Memorandum of Understanding established the Joint Ministerial Committee, consisting of UK Government, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Ministers, which has as one of its functions a role in resolving disputes. As I mentioned earlier, we will draw up a detailed concordat with the other national authorities in relation to the Bill. In the interests of transparency and continued constructive relations between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations, we expect to publish the concordat when finalised. That will have to be after Royal Assent, since the precise detail of the concordat depends on the final provisions of what is included in the Climate Change Act. That is the reality of the situation. Amendment No. 233 would require that we legislate for an agreement that sets out what happens if national authorities are unable to agree on an issue under the Bill. That is exactly what is already provided for—albeit not in legislation—in broad terms under the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding. We do not want to be heavy-handed about this. I was asked a specific question about the carbon units themselves. The department has prepared a briefing paper on carbon accounting, which I am happy to share with interested colleagues. I shall ensure that it is sent to the normal circulation list without noble Lords having to apply for it. The UK already has a well established system for tracking carbon units under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. That system has an excellent track record and has so far been licensed to 16 countries in addition to the UK. The UK Emissions Trading Registry is administered by the Environment Agency. It is a web-based system developed by Defra which facilitates the distribution, trade and surrender of emissions allowances, but it is a UK-wide system. The devolved administrations do not have carbon accounts under the Bill. I hope that that is considered to be a positive response. I understand why questions have been asked and I am not saying that they are all negative, but we are trying to make devolution work and procedures are in place, not just for the Climate Change Bill but for a whole range of issues where there are a mixture of devolved and non-devolved issues. My day job deals with farming, which is an EU issue and a devolved issue, so it is one that I am familiar with.