Draft Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) Order 2022

Alan Whitehead Excerpts

Monday 31st January 2022 General Committees

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Miller, albeit I have a slight apology to make for turning up at the very last moment. I ought perhaps to advise the Committee that the recently refurbished lift that takes hon. Members from the ground floor opposite the Strangers’ Bar does not stop at the first floor, which necessitated a rather circuitous route to get here. I apologise for being right on time, or marginally later, and I hope that the House of Commons authorities may have a look at whether the lift ought to stop at the first floor, which would be a good idea for good order in this House.

This statutory instrument is essentially uncontroversial, although the operation of the UK ETS is perhaps a little more controversial. The reason we are here this afternoon is because the SI seeks to put right an amendment order of 2020, which was put through under the negative procedure. However, the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments decided that it should have gone through the affirmative procedure, which is why we are debating this SI.

The changes in this SI, as opposed to those in the 2021 amendment order, are minimal to the point of being nothing. What we have in front of us is an amendment to the 2020 order, clarifying and adding various things in the way the Minister has described on aviation, on unused allowances and on definitions of how certain procedures of the order would work. One could argue that those perhaps might have been put in the 2020 order in the first place, but I am pleased that they are with us now.

I do not have any particular concerns or objections about those particular things in the order itself but, since we do not get many, or any, opportunities to examine the operation of the UK ETS, it is worth considering briefly what is happening to the scheme and whether it might have been a good idea to place some further amendments to the scheme before the House, both in terms of what has happened in the EU as far as the UK ETS is concerned and what has happened during the early stages of the scheme’s operation.

I therefore have two brief questions for the Minister about the operation of the UK ETS. Although my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham kindly sent me a note of what she intends to talk about, I will not—in the best traditions of theatre critics not to give away the plot of the play—tell the Committee exactly what she will say. However, I want to reflect on two things that are important to the operation of the UK ETS.

First, the intention of the UK ETS, at least for the first few years of operation, is that it should pretty closely shadow the EU ETS. As we know, that has not been the case. UK ETS prices have come in considerably higher than those of the EU ETS over that period. The intention behind the 2020 order, as set out in its impact assessment, has not been realised. It might have been wise to put in place linking mechanisms with the EU ETS much earlier—the Government have said they would consider doing so at some future date but have not done anything about it, as far as I know—bearing in mind that the EU ETS and the UK ETS have diverged in price in a way that was not originally envisaged.

My first question to the Minister is this. Does he intend to look at linking mechanisms with the EU ETS at an early stage to prevent future divergence, which may otherwise be increasingly wide? Among other things, businesses and commerce in this country want to be able to anticipate what will happen with carbon pricing. We do not disagree with the principle of carbon pricing, but businesses need some stability in their forward understanding of it.

Since the 2020 order, from which this amendment order derives, the EU has adopted in principle a proposal for a new carbon border adjustment mechanism. That mechanism would deal with the consequences of carbon leakage—that is, where the EU’s carbon taxes and carbon trading arrangements mean that third countries have a considerable trade advantage, because they can import goods without such arrangements attached and bring them within the EU’s borders. As far as I know, the UK has not yet taken any action on considering or implementing a carbon border adjustment mechanism. If the EU proceeds with such a mechanism, as seems likely, the UK will be in an even worse position than it is now when it comes to carbon leakage. We will be external to a carbon adjustment mechanism, so we will have punitive elements against us. At the same time, people will be able to import goods into the UK, safe in the knowledge that they are not subject to the same sorts of arrangements.

The Minister knows that various members of the Government—he is not one of them—have indicated that the UK should take the idea of a carbon border adjustment mechanism very seriously. My second question to him is this. Has he considered adding a carbon border adjustment mechanism to the 2020 order that brought about the UK scheme, as a successor to the EU ETS? If he has considered it, what action is his Department taking to forward the idea of a UK carbon border adjustment mechanism?

I hope that I have not stolen my hon. Friend’s thunder and that between us we will get some clarification at least from the Minister about how these things will work as the UK ETS proceeds. As a great supporter of carbon trading, I would say that a UK carbon trading mechanism—the UK ETS—should have been the obvious thing to introduce after the UK’s exit from the EU. I fully support that. What I am concerned about is ensuring that the UK ETS works as well as possible, to the net benefit of the UK and UK industry, rather than causing problems for it, as it sometimes looks like it might. I am sure the Minister will give me a full and frank run-down of the Government’s intentions in these areas. I look forward to hearing from him, but first I am very happy to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham, who I think will develop this theme a little further in relation to particular businesses in her constituency.