Energy Bill

I join the hon. Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry) in giving credit to the Secretary of State and the departmental team for the progress they are making in, for example, tackling climate change and addressing issues such as carbon capture and storage. It is worth casting our minds back to the days before the appointment of the current Secretary of State to a time when we had no Committee on Climate Change, no Climate Change Bill and no feed-in tariffs. We did not even have the expectations that we now have for CCS by the 2020s, and there was limited competition to incentivise it. We should recognise the progress that is being made. However, this debate takes place in inauspicious times. According to an opinion poll this morning, there is growing scepticism about the reality of climate change and the anthropogenic causes of it. There is growing scepticism in the media, in newspapers such as the Daily Express, and among those on the Conservative Benches. Indeed, I see that the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) and the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley) are breathing down the neck of the hon. Member for Wealden. That kind of scepticism is on the rise, but it is important that we reiterate that the overwhelming scientific consensus is still that climate change is certainly happening and it is overwhelmingly likely that it has man-made causes. We also meet in the context of the failure at Copenhagen to agree a rigid international framework for tackling the next phase of carbon emission reductions worldwide. The world's Governments are drinking in the last chance saloon when it comes to tackling climate change in time. Other hon. Members have referred to the warnings from the Committee on Climate Change, the newly established Government advisers on this subject. It says:""Progress in reducing emissions in the five years before the first budget period"—" the first carbon budget period—""both overall and in most sectors, was far slower than now required to meet budget commitments. A step change in pace of reduction is essential."" The committee's report refers specifically to some of the issues that we are discussing today. Of the power sector it says:""Investment in low-carbon generation is risky and may not be pursued sufficiently under current market arrangements."" In other words, the current market arrangements are those prevailing under the European emissions trading scheme.