Lord Teverson
Main Page: Lord Teverson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Verma
My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord that it is not just because of the recession. We are, through the Energy Bill, putting in place a number of measures to ensure that we will be working towards reducing carbon emissions.
Lord Teverson
My Lords, to reduce carbon emissions we need a strong carbon price. Can my noble friend the Minister tell us what the Government are doing to boost the price of carbon in Europe, despite the fact that the European Parliament has recently voted against the backloading of current emission targets?
Baroness Verma
I agree with my noble friend. We continue to support the Commission’s proposal to backload and we hope for a more positive outcome in the forthcoming votes in the European Parliament at the next voting session. The Government are pushing for the adoption of a unilateral EU target for 2030 of a 40% reduction on 1990 levels, and, in the context of a more ambitious climate agreement for the period beyond 2020, the EU’s target should increase up to a 50% reduction on 1990 levels.