My Lords, I rise at the request of the noble Lord, Lord Bird, to move Amendment 19. He wishes me to send his sincere apologies that he is unable to be here today. I shall do my best to be a substitute, although I am not quite sure that my acting skills are up to it—but I shall do my best.
The amendment is very simple; it would add an extra principle to the list of principles to be considered, stating that
“policies and decisions should take into account the interests of members of future generations”.
The fact is that we know that the climate emergency and nature crisis are already here, but even more severe impacts are waiting in the wings for future generations. We are seeing floods and forest fires, and these impacts will grow in coming decades. Future generations are desperate for us to do something now so that they get a chance of a decent life.
In this Chamber we have all benefited from the vision, bravery and foresight of past generations, whether that is a parent or grandparent who fought in a number of 20th-century wars or those who founded
the NHS or decriminalised homosexuality. Indeed, noble Lords may remember the noble Lord, Lord Bird, speaking very powerfully on his Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill at greater length on those issues. We are in a unique position now to change the course of history for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and those not yet born, to make their lives better and safer and more secure, stable and prosperous. This amendment sets that out as a principle of government action. We need to acknowledge that responsibility and to listen to the young people who are saying, “What are you doing to our future now?”
We must have a commitment to long-term thinking and interrogating the consequences of our policy decisions—to look for better solutions to today’s problems that will leave the future better off. We all know—many Members of your Lordships’ House who have been former members of Governments within these walls have recognised—that decisions in the past have had unintended consequences. We have to start trying to solve the problems that we have created.
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That was my introduction to the amendment. I wish to add one personal comment. We have a huge problem with short-term thinking. It is the nature of our political system; other political systems with different electoral arrangements and modern functional constitutions produce more long-term thinking and different kinds of approaches. It is beyond the scope of today to get into tackling that, but we can, by writing this principle of considering future generations into the Bill, do something to change the nature of our decision-making.
I turn to Amendment 20 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, also signed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and me. I want to pick up a few points from the same amendment proposed in Committee. The noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, asked a question then, and I really want to reinforce it, because we did not get an answer to it in Committee. She pointed out that in the Climate Change Act there is a requirement to have due regard for the military. What is different about this? We have discussed again and again in this debate the way in which biodiversity and climate are interrelated. If it applies to climate, how can it possibly not apply to the military and Treasury in this Bill too?
I also want to address the point about ensuring that the Treasury is covered by these provisions. The economy is a complete subset of the environment, and I note that there is currently a petition calling for the Government to set up a well-being economy, so that the Treasury makes its decisions on the basis of the well-being of people and planet, which has approaching 60,000 signatures.
In Committee, I referred to the integrated review, which acknowledges that the climate emergency is at the centre of security policy. It says that climate change and biodiversity loss are our number one international priority. How then can we not be seeing the environmental principles covering all our security activities? The Minister in Committee said that excluding those two paragraphs
“could restrict our response to urgent threats”.
It was suggested that the application would not be proportionate. I point the Minister to Clause 17(2) of the Bill, which says that the
“‘policy statement on environmental principles’ … should be interpreted and proportionately applied by Ministers … when making policy”.
Proportionality is already there in every aspect of the application of environmental principles.
In responding to questions about the Treasury being covered, the Minister said in Committee that we have to have
“maximum flexibility in respect of the nation’s finances”.—[Official Report, 28/6/21; col. 579.]
We can see where that got us. We have seen successive Governments of a number of different hues continuing to freeze the fuel duty escalator, which, up to 2019, had cost the Government cumulatively £8 billion. Of course, it is very difficult to measure, but there was certainly significant environmental damage, as the cost of public transport has kept going up and up and people have found themselves priced back into their cars. As the Overseas Development Institute noted in November 2020, the UK was last on a list of 11 OECD countries in terms of the levels of fossil fuel subsidies coming from the Treasury and going to the industries that are trashing our planet, and on transparency.
With environmental principles, the key really is in the word “principles”. Those principles should apply across the board to government, with the already existing allowance for due flexibility, particularly in case of emergency. I beg to move.