Clause 16
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
5:45 pm
Steve Webb (Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Northavon, Liberal Democrat)
I wish to make a brief comment on amendment No. 52 in anticipation of a separate clause stand part debate.
The amendment, which is identical to one tabled in the other place, would replace one arbitrary figure with another arbitrary figure, albeit one that is smaller. It would be interesting to know from the Minister the thinking behind 1 per cent. and whether it is anything more than something along the lines of saying, “It’s not very much, is it?”, which is how I think the figure was derived.
As for the magnitude of the figure, it is a percentage of the five-year aggregate carbon budget. That means that it is bigger than it looks because 1 per cent. of the five-year total is equivalent to 5 per cent. of one year’s total—[Interruption.] It took me years to work that one out. This is important. It sounds innocuous, but in the context of 80 per cent. cuts over 50 years, with 1 or 2 per cent. as a typical annual figure, the amount under this provision could be 5 per cent. of the annual figure, which is large.
As I shall explain in the stand part debate, I object to the principle of borrowing. However, if we have to do that, we need the figure to be justified, and we should certainly err on the side of a much smaller figure, given that, in effect, it is five times as big as it looks. If all we can have is a smaller figure, I would rather have that and I would support the amendment, but I prefer not to have the principle at all.