My Lords, in this group of amendments we return to the crucially important issues surrounding climate change and the green agenda, about which we have heard strong views, and rightly so. Climate change presents clear risks to our environment and our way of life, which is why I am not embarrassed to claim that the Government have led the world in their ambition to reach net zero, and why we are committed to fostering the changes needed to reach that goal. That is the delivery that my noble friend Lord Deben spoke of.
However, what is crucial is that we do this in a way that is effective without being unnecessarily disruptive. That is where, I am afraid, I must take issue with Amendment 191 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Ravensdale and Lord Teverson, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, and my noble friend Lord Lansley. For the same reason, I need to resist Amendment 283 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. I do so with regret.
The intention of these proposed new clauses—to set more specific legal obligations which bear upon national policy, plan-makers and those making planning decisions—is not at all the focus of my criticism. We all want to achieve the golden thread that the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, referred to. The problem is their likely effect, which would be to trigger a slew of litigation in these areas. That in turn could serve to hinder the action that we need to get plans in place to safeguard the environment that we all wish to protect. For example, Amendment 283 would mean that the
Bill’s existing obligations on plans to address climate change mitigation and adaptation would have to be interpreted in the context of very high-level national objectives. That would not be a straightforward thing to do, because high-level objectives do not, in most cases, provide clear direction at the level of an individual district.
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It is for this reason that we have committed instead to go further through national planning policy. We think that that is a better and more practical route to take, because national planning policy is tailored specifically to the principles of making plans and decisions at the local level, and it will have much greater force in this area, subject to the passage of this Bill. That is the join-up in the planning system that my noble friend Lord Lansley referred to and the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, rightly wants. That increased force will arise in three ways: first, through the statutory weight that national development management policies will have in decision-making; secondly, through the greater weight that locally produced plans will also have, bearing in mind that those plans must reflect national policy; and, thirdly, underpinning all of this, through our clear commitment to revise national policy so that it contributes as fully as possible to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through this route, I believe that we can achieve the stronger emphasis on climate change which these amendments seek to bring about, without creating undue risks to the very plans and decisions on which future action depends.
Turning to Amendment 246A, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Caithness for raising the issue of wildfires. He made some very good points stemming from his deep experience in these matters, but I hope to persuade him that his amendment is not needed because of the actions the Government have already committed to. Specifically, the Home Office, which is the lead department for wildfires, supported by Defra, has already committed to the scoping of a wildfire strategy and action plan by mid-2024 as part of the Government’s national adaptation programme. This will include engagement with other government departments and will determine not only the benefits of such a strategy being developed but what is included and the timelines for delivery.
My noble friend referred to the fire rating system. As I am sure he knows, the current system is the Met Office’s fire severity index. However, Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency have committed to commissioning wildfire research, including an England wildfire risk map and defining effective wildfire risk reduction measures. There is also an ongoing research project called “Toward a UK Fire Danger Rating System”. However, I remind my noble friend that this research is still ongoing and that it will not deliver a fully functioning danger rating system, at least not in the short term. I will write to him if I can obtain more information on these matters, but we should also remember that planning already takes into account climate change.
The National Planning Policy Framework makes it clear that plans should take a proactive approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change, taking into
account the long-term implications. What does that mean? It means that new development should be planned for in ways that avoid increased vulnerability to the range of impacts arising from climate change. Policies should support appropriate measures to ensure the future resilience of communities and infrastructure to climate change impacts, and, as I have set out, we have committed instead to go further through national planning policy. I hope that reassures my noble friend that we are already on his case.
Amendment 275 is another instance where we can agree the ends but not the suggested means of getting there. Decarbonisation, jobs in green industries and boosting supplies of green energy are important objectives to which this Government are strongly committed. With this in mind, we have published a net zero strategy and the British Energy Security Strategy and established the Green Jobs Delivery Group in 2022—these are just a start. Indeed, while acknowledging the work done so far, the Climate Change Committee and the independent review of net zero made recommendations on publishing an action plan or road map for net-zero skills, driving forward delivery of the recommendations of the Green Jobs Delivery Group.
We completely agree on the need to go further, so we are committing to publishing a joint government-industry net zero and nature workforce action plan in the first half of 2024, representing the culmination of several sectoral assessments in the coming 12 months. We are beginning with a set of head start actions from the pilot power and networks working group now, followed by a suite of comprehensive actions for this sector by the end of summer 2023, which can be used as a template for the other sectoral assessments. So it is difficult, at least for me, to see what a legislative commitment to a further strategy would add to that; we need to get on with delivery. Formulating yet another strategy could distract from the job we now need to focus on: delivering the actions needed to address climate change.
Reverting to my initial remarks on Amendment 191, I live in hope that what I have said provides the reassurance necessary for the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, to withdraw that amendment, and for the other amendments in this group not to be moved when they are reached.