My Lords, when the IPCC report on the global warming challenge came out last week, and it gave a pretty dire view, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, who I think had just been watching the Oscars, said it was
“everything, everywhere, all at once”—
but I do not think he would have included the village hydrogen trials within that broad definition. I understand what the Minister has said, and I welcome all his assurances to local citizens about how the trials will work, but, frankly, the science clearly says that hydrogen sent through the gas pipe network to a range of residential properties does not work, does not make sense and is not going to happen in the future.
9.45 pm
I welcome that the noble Lord, Lord Lennie, read out that letter from Graham Stuart because, in terms of the Ukrainian/Russian war, it gives an off-ramp to the Government to ditch this scheme. Very occasionally, I try to give the Government advice from my humble Bench, and it is of course a waste of time, but I say to the Minister that he should make sure that he gets those villages to say they do not want it in the end. That will let everyone off the hook, faces will be saved, and this thing will never actually happen. That is what I believe will happen at the end of the day, by 2025. But, in the meantime, I withdraw my amendment, because it is unnecessary.