Clause 44
Climate Change Bill [Lords]
1:30 pm
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
I see the hon. Gentleman’s point. Sectoral schemes could be within the ETS, but they probably will not be. One can envisage circumstances involving international industries that are not predominantly European-based. I hesitate to offer an example because trade associations will write to me about it, but let us say that the international widget manufacturing association wanted to propose a scheme, and that a lot of widgets were produced in a place—again, I shall not mention a particular country—that is east of Berlin.
Suppose a judgment was made that one could preserve UK competitiveness and encourage a reduction in emissions across a European geographical area. One might want to do that within the ETS, so we have not ruled it out. We are trying to provide flexibility. In practice, we can identify steel, aluminium and, perhaps, food processing, as well as other sectors as they grow from the grass roots upwards. My example of bus operation is not fanciful;. One could envisage such a scheme as we embed carbon budgets. I hope I have answered the question.