Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 228: 228: Before Clause 65, insert the following new Clause— ““Measurement of emissions by the Export Credit Guarantee Department (1) The Export and Investment Guarantees Act 1991 (c. 67) is amended as follows. (2) In section 7 (reports and returns), after subsection (1) insert— ““(1A) The annual report shall include an assessment of the direct and indirect contribution of greenhouse gases to the climate from those enterprises for which arrangements were entered pursuant to sections 1, 2 or 3 in that year.”””” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, the amendment aims to deal with reporting authorities and who should be reporting. Some time ago, in Clauses 12, 13, 14 and 15 in the Bill, we discussed accounting and what should be accounted for. We discussed the emissions that the UK itself emits and the reductions that the UK buys in terms of carbon units from abroad. The only area we have not discussed is emissions that occur overseas but are actually financed by the UK. That is where the Export Credit Guarantee Department comes in. Through that department we are financing some £1.8 billion worth of support for UK exporters. I have tabled the amendment because much of that support is for very carbon intensive industries. The amendment requires an additional section to be inserted into the Act governing the operations of the ECGD to make it a statutory obligation that it should publicly report on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the activities of that department and the projects that it supports—as outlined in Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Act that set it up. I am not asking for a lot in this amendment because the department currently measures the levels of its greenhouse gas emissions caused by the projects that it supports. However, although that information is already gathered, it is not publicly available. The fact that the department already collects all the information on greenhouse gas emissions associated with the projects it supports from the questionnaires that it sends out to its customers, means that to require it to report that information and be transparent in its operations is a very short step. The purpose of the amendment is therefore to ask the Minister whether the Government will require that to happen. I beg to move.