Clause 14
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
We move on to clause 14. The reason for the clause is that an essential objective of the Bill is to provide transparency about the Government’s plans and actions for tackling climate change. As part of that transparency, the Bill requires the United Kingdom Government to publish their proposals for meeting each carbon budget. The report produced must be laid before Parliament as soon as is reasonably practical after the setting of the budget. By providing a clear indication of the strategy, the Government aim to reinforce business and public confidence that robust plans are in place to ensure that the budget will be met.
The 15-year plans published under clause 14—the three five-year budgets—play an important part in providing the greater predictability that the Bill aims to introduce. Businesses and households that are planning investments will want to know not just the overall level of the UK-wide budget, but the choice of policies that could be implemented to ensure that the budgets are met.
My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced that the first three carbon budgets and the plans for meeting them will be set out alongside the 2009 Budget. That timing draws an important parallel, also made by the Chancellor. Just as our public finances must balance over an economic cycle, so we must live within our carbon budgets for the health of the wider world and, therefore, for ourselves. The report will be crucial in bringing together a range of policies and showing how they will combine to meet the carbon budget. That will be a combination of existing measures—those, for example, contained in the energy White Paper—and new measures, to be announced within the report or over the months before its publication.
At present, clause 14 places the duty on the Prime Minister, reflecting a change made to the Bill in the other place. I agree that, to tackle climate change, we need a strong effort, not just across Government, but across society as a whole. All parts of our society will have a role to play. It is also the case that the Prime Minister is personally committed to the fight against climate change.