Clause 15
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
My hon. Friend is a member of that Committee and she is right to remind me about it. Let me bring us more down to earth. We are debating how we can account for aviation and shipping emissions and I will run through the answers to the questions.
First, I will clarify the point made about reporting emissions under UN guidance. The UK, along with all other signatories to the UNFCCC, is required to report on emissions from sales of aviation and shipping bunker fuels—crudely put, that means fuels that are sold or purchased in the UK. On a global level, it does not matter where the fuels are sold. We get a figure of what the global emissions are and that is what matters. Suffice to say, the data are not completely robust. I point no fingers at any particular country, but hon. Members will understand what I mean.
The UNFCCC permits a range of methodologies for calculating those sales on a sliding scale of provision. However, that method of allocating emissions is not totally reliable, as planes and ships routinely tanker fuel from countries with lower fuel prices. That is particularly a problem with respect to shipping. Ships on international routes have a significant degree of choice about where they take on fuel. They will generally do so where the fuel can be obtained for the best price, and that includes tankers that are moored in international waters. Therefore, any attempt to calculate the UK’s shipping emissions on the basis of UK bunker fuel sales will significantly underestimate our contribution and overestimate that of other countries. My point is that I am trying to capture more than I would have to if I took the purest stance.
Similarly, with aviation, it is not apparent how such measures would work alongside the already inclusive nature of aviation in the European Union ETS. It is not clear how two systems could be operated alongside each other, with one system allocating emissions to countries on the basis of fuel sold, and the other allocating emissions and carbon units to airlines on the basis of which country they were based in. There are obvious risks of double counting or a system that is over-complex and burdensome. That is why, when the European Union ETS rules are finalised, we will ask the Committee on Climate Change for its advice on methodology.
The first question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North was about why we cannot publish the figures for aviation and shipping emissions alongside the carbon budgets. He makes a good point. We already report those figures to Parliament, and they are published each year, as is required under the Kyoto agreement.
A number of questions were asked by the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle, who made the valid point that industry needs certainty that emissions will be included within five years. I agree with his premise, but I say that committing now to including emissions as suggested would not provide certainty, but quite the reverse. There would be no certainty about how we would define the UK’s share of emissions or what the implications would be. There would be no certainty about the effect on aviation. Let me repeat that the Bill is not about measures to address emissions, but how we account for them.