Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he or his officials last met representatives of the recycling industry to discuss local authorities' performance against recycling targets.
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how much waste was recycled in each (a) district council, (b) borough council, (c) unitary authority and (d) other local authority area in the West Midlands in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement; (2) how much waste was recycled in each (a) district council, (b)...
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the extent to which the recycling industry can contribute towards meeting Courtauld II recycling targets in local authority areas; and if he will make a statement.
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which local authorities did not meet their targets for recycling waste in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what percentage of waste was recycled in each such area in that period.
Desmond Turner: rose-
Desmond Turner: There is one flaw in the argument about the signals for investment that an EPS can provide. If we are worried that too strict an EPS will disincentivise investment, surely to incentivise investment, it would have to be a very lax EPS, which will get us nowhere.
Desmond Turner: rose-
Desmond Turner: The hon. Gentleman's remarks about giving the market a clear signal would carry some weight if such a signal were contained within the new clause that he and my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson) have proposed. However, it leaves the EPS so open-ended that it could mean absolutely anything. It could even encompass the emission levels of a current plant. Without...
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with which companies his Department has discussed the development of a smart grid in the last six months.
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which stakeholder groups his Department has (a) created and (b) consulted on the development of a smart grid in the last six months.
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when he last met (a) Ofcom and (b) Ofgem to discuss the establishment of a smart grid; and if he will make a statement.
Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what meetings with each stakeholder group he has had on the allocation of the bandwidth spectrum in respect of the development of a smart grid.
Desmond Turner: I shall not be as churlish as Opposition Members about the Bill. It is indeed a modest Bill, but I think it unreasonable to expect a compendium Bill dealing with every outstanding energy issue to go through Parliament in the limited time that we have before the general election. For obvious reasons, this Bill focuses on what is needed immediately. I welcome the Bill, and I gather that, in a...
Desmond Turner: My apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. As I was saying, this is a modest Bill. Only three issues, in my view, have not been addressed at all, or have not been addressed as much as they might have been. The reason why we need the Bill is clear, however. We have a liberalised electricity market, for which we must thank the Opposition in their former role as the Government. I sometimes think that...
Desmond Turner: I think that one of the best ways to level the playing field is to have a realistic carbon price. We currently have a ludicrous price in the EU emissions trading scheme. I know that one of the things that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State hopes will emerge from Copenhagen is an internationally agreed means of increasing the carbon price.
Desmond Turner: It is about £70 billion, but I have slightly lost track; there is, however, a mounting pile of both waste and cost. I should add that the nuclear industry does not want to know about making a level playing field. Returning to my theme, the whole process would be made a great deal easier if we had a sensible carbon price. If we had such a carbon price, we would not need to exact as much money...
Desmond Turner: I absolutely agree, and I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention. I do not mind whether the measure in question is called a feed-in tariff, a multiple ROC or a special levy, as long as it does the job. Obviously, it would be temporary and tied to the state of development of a given technology. If we do not do that, however, we run the risk of losing an industry that this country...
Desmond Turner: That is an interesting question, but I do not think it matters. The provision states quite clearly that sustainability is a primary part of Ofgem's responsibility and, of course, it is a consumer benefit. Fighting climate change is as much a consumer benefit as anything else. In fact, I think that it is probably one of the greatest benefits that we can give to successive generations of...
Desmond Turner: I wish that we come back from Copenhagen with a significant agreement, but whatever enthusiasm, skill and energy our delegation demonstrates there-I will be there watching and cheering them on-they cannot do it on their own. That is the nub of the problem. That is not only why we need an international agreement if we are to achieve any success in combating climate change, but why it is...
Desmond Turner: Well, I find that extremely hard to believe. The resistance to climate change in the US is very strong. I remember the first real redneck I ever met was a senator from Wisconsin. He leaned back in his chair, put his feet on his desk and said, "If it impinges badly on the American economy, there is no way we're gonna ratify Kyoto." The US economy comes first, second, third and fourth as far as...