My Lords, I endorse the remarks of my noble friend Lord McFall in introducing the debate on the amendments. My remarks are necessarily cut short because the noble Lord, Lord Deben, provided a great deal of the supportive evidence and arguments the Government ought to take seriously; we hope that they will.
There was a time, not so very long ago, when we prided ourselves on the extent to which this country was to the fore in being aware of the problems of climate change and taking the necessary action to reduce the frightening possibility of the rise in temperatures and general climate change, which would make such great difficulty for the whole world. I know that my noble friend Lady Worthington, who is, unhappily, not with us today, is very concerned that the French this year have taken steps that are somewhat in advance of what we have made so far. They passed a law requiring listed companies to disclose in their annual reports how exposed they are to the financial risks related to the effects of climate change, and what measures have been adopted by the company to reduce those risks. The law also requires pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors in France
to disclose how they are managing climate change risk. This law makes France the first country in the world to introduce a carbon-reporting obligation on financial institutions.
Amendment 29B gives an indication of the road we could tread. I therefore hope that the Minister will at least commit the Government to creating a standardised set of questions that financial services providers must ask to gather and present information on companies and asset owners. The aim would be to make it easier to compare and assess risks to which companies may be exposed because of the impact of climate change. That is not asking too much of the Minister, in his more constructive mood, and I hope I will establish that point very shortly.