Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026

Debate between Lord Berkeley and Lord Dodds of Duncairn

Thursday 12th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dodds of Duncairn (DUP)]

I thank the noble Baroness, who raises a very important point, because when the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper was published, and was heavily sold in order to get the restoration of the Assembly and the Executive and so on, great emphasis was put upon this guarantee in the United Kingdom Internal Market Act that this would ensure Northern Ireland would not be put at any detriment by the introduction of new measures and so on. So, I echo what the noble Baroness has said and ask the Minister to address that specific piece of legislation, which is meant to protect Northern Ireland as part of the UK internal market. The sad reality, of course, is that that is overridden. Not to pre-empt the Minister’s answer, but I suggest he will probably say that it is overridden by the superior obligation to the EU under Section 7A of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. That is the real answer, even if he does not say it, and until we address that point we will not get any satisfactory resolution to the problems that we have.

I have a number of questions for the Minister. On the issue of the Scottish exemption, he really needs to come forward and explain, on this issue of economic unfairness, what the rationale is for excluding Northern Ireland. What is the rationale for comparing Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic in saying that a 50% reduction is satisfactory, given that this is what applies on trade between the Irish Republic and Great Britain, when Northern Ireland businesses are in competition with their British counterparts on the mainland? This is the comparison that needs to be made. Traders, consumers and businesses in the rest of the United Kingdom do not have to concern themselves so much—hardly at all, most of them—with any maritime transport issues, but Northern Ireland is utterly dependent upon that, so the issue of why the Scottish islands are exempt and Northern Ireland is not needs to be addressed.

There is an issue about where the money is going from this. There is no reference to the fact that this money will be used in any particular way. It is important that the Minister clarifies how the revenue is going to be used to help in relation to decarbonisation, if at all. I want to ask the Minister about the time to prepare, since the order was published on 13 January. It seems to me that there is an inordinate rush to get this through. What is the reason for that? Would one solution not be to give more time for consultation before this is brought into full implementation?

I want to ask about the maritime decarbonisation fund, with £271 million in funding to support shipping and coastal communities. Will Northern Ireland have access to that fund? I want to ask about state aid provisions in this regard, because under the Windsor Framework we are under the EU state aid regime, not the UK state aid regime. Is there any impediment to access to that fund for operators in Northern Ireland as a result of those state aid obligations? I would like a clear answer, because there seems to be some confusion on the issue and it would be helpful if the Minister would spell it out.

This is a very important debate. It raises a number of issues, not only substantive ones to do with the economy and trade. Those are important, but it has exposed a wider issue about the political process, which has been very helpfully and skilfully brought to light by both the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, in introducing their Motions. It will do damage to the political process in Northern Ireland. This type of manoeuvring by the Northern Ireland Office is extremely unhelpful to the Assembly set-up, which is fragile and difficult enough.

It seems that the NIO engages with the Assembly only on its terms and when it is in its advantage to push its particular arguments. It does not seem to operate as a voice for Northern Ireland within the Cabinet or Whitehall machinery, and that really needs to be looked at. We were promised that there would be an engagement unit set up between the Cabinet Office and the Northern Ireland Executive under the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper. What has happened to that? It seems that the NIO picks and chooses whatever it wishes to raise as issues but does so to implement its view of what should happen, rather than advancing the cause of Northern Ireland within the Whitehall set-up.

[Lord Berkeley (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for introducing this draft order and the many noble Lords who have expressed concern. The noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, and the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, have both set out their concerns, which I share because I live in the Isles of Scilly. Although the Minister briefly mentioned the Isle of Wight, the comments made about the difficulty of getting to and from, and living in, the islands—I include Northern Ireland in that—are well known. We have been fighting the Government for years to try and get some benefit for the Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight, in some kind of support for transport—which is ships, of course. Although the Scottish Government were clever in sticking with what they have, we have so far failed.

Some noble Lords may say, “Well, you’re talking about little baby ferries”—those that go across to the islands I mentioned—whereas this order is at the moment limited to 5,000 tonnes. That is true, and none of the ships that go to the Isles of Scilly, except cruise ships, weigh more than that. However, we are also told by many, and I am sure it is true, that when the European Union reviews all these related regulations it will wish to reduce the limit from 5,000 tonnes to much less, so that could affect the freight and passenger ships to the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly. Let us be clear that, at the moment, the costs of services to these islands are very high. The cost of freight to the Isles of Scilly probably means that it comes out at about four times what you would be paying on the mainland for a bag of cement or a tin of baked beans. It is very serious.

The second issue I have with this draft regulation is the timing, as my noble colleague has just mentioned. The timing is quite serious if we are to come up with some alternative means of propulsion. It is fine to say that they can all be electric, and electric ships exist—but not everywhere. In parallel to electric ships, you need a lot of power to ports, but, at the moment, we seem to have a shortage of power. We have had many debates here about the high-power demands for AI, railways, buses and everything else like that. To say that ports must have enough power available to service all the ships that are going to come in in two or three months is cloud-cuckoo-land. We are talking just about ferries—nice though it is to talk about ferries to Ireland. Cruise ships have also been mentioned, as have general cargo and container ships. All kinds of different craft that could reach the 5,000 tonnes or less in the future need to know what the future limits are going to be and to assess what they will do in terms of rebuilding, refitting, or whatever.

I conclude by asking my noble friend the Minister what information has been given to the industry about the need for and the availability of shore power. I also ask him whether he thinks it would be a good idea to ring-fence some of the shore power availability to some of the bigger ports, and whether there is enough generating capacity. I hope my noble friend will be able to tell me that.

I support other noble Lords who suggest that this regulation should be delayed until we have much better proof of alignment with the EU and are given a much longer-term feed-in notice so that the industry, be it ports, shipping lines or anyone else, can adapt and avoid being fined, because that is not what we want for this business. I hope also that we can continue to have a good debate and get some exemptions for Northern Ireland, which I fully support, and for the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.