Clause 16
Energy Bill
2:45 pm
Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)
I do not understand why the hon. Gentleman feels that this regime—presumably the one we are discussing now and in the forthcoming clauses—will unnecessarily extend the time scale. We are all anxious to tackle global warming and reduce CO2 emissions here in the UK and worldwide just as quickly as possible. Time is not on our side. I certainly wish that CCS had a history of 20 years and we would be talking more about its universal deployment. But we are not there yet scientifically and technologically. The costs, as we noted the other day in Portcullis House, are obviously considerable. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman can return to this theme on another occasion. I do not want to stop him intervening again, but we have hours of delicious debate on this subject ahead of us.