Clause 2 - Annual reports under section 1 of the Sustainable Energy Act 2003
Energy Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
I welcome you back to chairing our deliberations, Mr. Sayeed, and I welcome back all members of the Committee following our weekend break. We had a good discussion on Thursday on this group of amendments. I thought that in responding I would start with my proposal to delete
clause 3 and replace it with Government new clause 7 because much of the discussion focused on that last week.
There are two elements to this proposal. First, should there be a Government commitment to a figure for carbon savings from household energy? As it might be unclear from the record, I want to make it absolutely clear that the Government believe that there should be such a commitment. We have a mechanism for providing it in the Sustainable Energy Act 2003, which came on to the statute book as a result of the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes, North-East (Brian White). The Government proposal uses that mechanism so as to be consistent with the work that has been done in Parliament on this, rather than to cut across it, as clause 3 would, by putting a figure in the Bill, with all the drawbacks that that entails. There is complete agreement across the Committee about the rightness of there being a clear commitment.
Secondly—this is an issue on which much of the discussion on Thursday focused—what should that figure be? In the White Paper we suggested that it should be around 5 million tonnes of carbon savings. The figure that has been published is 4.2 million; if one takes the reasonable view that around five means more than four and less than six, the figure is consistent. The announcement made the other week sits alongside the increased commitment on energy efficiency for business. Total carbon savings from energy efficiency across both sectors will be appreciably more than the numbers set out in the White Paper. It is important that we deliver carbon savings.
I understand the concerns that were forcefully expressed in our debate on Thursday. I listened carefully to all the points that were made. I agree that we should be aiming high in this area. We should be aspirational. The figure of 4.2 million tonnes is the minimum that I would expect to be achieved. I am also concerned about the industry's sense that there has not been a good dialogue with the Government in this process. That also needs to be addressed. Together with my noble Friend Lord Whitty, who leads on this matter, I will arrange to meet representatives of the industry and those who are particularly concerned about the household energy efficiency aims. We will do that before Report.