Clause 43
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
1:15 pm
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
Thank you, Mr. Atkinson, and welcome to the sitting. It is a pleasure to be here.
Hon. Members have asked important questions. Carbon trading schemes, on which there is consensus, lie at the heart of the Bill, and their success should be judged on not just the EU scheme, but on similar arrangements, such as the previous scheme for sulphur dioxide and the very successful Montreal convention, which we recently celebrated 20 years of.
In answer to questions raised, it is important that carbon trading schemes are compatible and that there is an exchange mechanism so that we can roll out such schemes across the globe. Our long-term aim is to see the expansion of the ETS to cover more sectors and gases, but some sectors might not be appropriate for inclusion. The enabling powers in the Bill will provide the Government or devolved Administrations of the day with additional options to take domestic action in sectors that are unsuitable at the time for inclusion in the ETS. They will also allow them to take domestic action ahead of the EU when that is cost-effective and necessary to reduce UK emissions. We believe that that approach might also help sectors to prepare for inclusion. Any decision on the best policy instrument will take account of the UK Government’s objectives in the round. For example, we might wish to supplement the EU-level action and introduce our own policies to uncover inefficiencies and to support clean technologies. The powers here will provide them and the devolved Administrations with the opportunity to do that.
I am trying to create an architecture for carbon trading schemes that allows inter-exchange. It might be that prices will differ, in which case we would have exchange rates, would we not?