Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Kyoto Protocol Registry) Regulations 2021

Baroness Altmann Excerpts

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Altmann (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his clear exposition of this SI. I am delighted that the Government have been showing strong commitment to addressing climate change, and of course I support the aims of the regulations and the amendment of EU law as it now applies to UK—which is, sadly, required following our departure from the EU. I also support our work to comply with our assignment amount units and targets under the Kyoto Protocol in order to reduce emissions.

In my brief time today, I shall ask my noble friend a few questions. What are the advantages from the extra costs incurred in setting up our own domestic registry, independent of the EU-wide CSEUR software platform, and how much is it expected to cost? Was there any opportunity to remain part of the EU system? Will my noble friend also provide an update on the progress so far and the Government’s confidence level in meeting the May deadline for transferring accounts over to the new UK system and for verifying the information from those accounts when they are transferred from the CSEUR?

This SI also removes obligations from the Environment Agency to comply with EU law. Now it only has to comply with our international climate law obligations. Will this departure from EU rules have any impact on the trade in certain sectors or products? I wonder whether my noble friend could comment on any assessment that may have been made of the implications of departing from the presumably higher EU standards.

Finally, following on from the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, could my noble friend comment on the possibility of bringing together the various different schemes? We have already established our own emissions trading scheme for greenhouse gases, and we are now setting up our own registry for the Kyoto Protocol. Are there plans under consideration to bring together all our climate change obligations so we can monitor them in a comprehensive fashion?