Environment: Low-carbon Technologies

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 14th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, it is good to be able to welcome my noble friend’s initiative in securing this debate. I also congratulate my noble friend Lord Prescott on an excellent maiden speech. As noble Lords have said, he played a critical role in the successful Kyoto 1 negotiations. He has been a strong champion of the low-carbon economy and the environment, and he disclosed tonight that he has a family connection in your Lordships’ House. I am sure that his noble kinsmen, as we tend to call them, will warmly welcome him. My noble friend’s continued interest in climate change is very much welcome.

This is a very important debate. For me, climate change is probably the most critical issue that we face or are likely to face this century. My noble friend Lord Smith spoke of some of the difficult problems on climate change that we already face in this country. When we look at the impact of floods, water shortage, drought, mass migration and species extinction in so many parts of the world, we have to take action.

My fear is that since Copenhagen, and in the context of the current global economic turmoil, there is a real risk of climate change dropping off the agenda. We cannot afford for that to happen and we cannot ignore what happened at Copenhagen. As my noble friend Lord Prescott said, it was not a success. The fact is that an accord was agreed. I understand that more than 100 countries have now signed up to the accord and have made substantial emission commitments. They are not sufficient to meet the required increase limit of 2 degrees Celsius, but there is none the less some progress. Agreement was reached on the need for measurement, verification and reporting of emissions, which is absolutely essential if there is to be integrity behind global agreements. Agreement was also reached on fast-start finance of up to $30 billion by 2012, leading to $100 billion by 2020—a figure that the previous Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, originally suggested should be the aim.

It is important that we build on that. I ask the Minister to give a clear commitment to spare no effort in working for a globally binding treaty. I invite him to state what is the Government’s negotiating strategy. We have heard very little about it in the past few weeks. My noble friend Lord Prescott gave some important pieces of advice to the Government on how they ought to approach the negotiations at Cancun. I particularly emphasise his point about the potential partnership between China and Europe, and on building on the agreements that have been reached. What is for sure is that the UK should be a leader. I am very proud of the actions that the previous Government took in introducing the Climate Change Act. The UK was the first country to introduce a legally binding framework to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 through the mechanism of carbon budgets. I ask the Minister to confirm that the coalition Government are committed to carbon budgets. What is his response to the recent report of the Committee on Climate Change which stated that we should not bank overperformance in the first budget through to the second budget?

Binding treaty or not, the world is on a trajectory to a low-carbon world. My noble friend Lord Bhattacharyya spoke about a consumerist-led approach. It is vital that the UK is not left behind. My noble friend Lord Sugar had a real warning for us on this. The noble Lord, Lord Smith, spoke about the history of wind turbine manufacturing being a hard lesson that we had to learn. My noble friend Lord Sugar was sceptical about the positive signals about the potential manufacturing capacity of the UK, particularly for offshore wind turbines. However, I was confident at the time of the election that we would see this manufacturing capacity, but crucially that depended on government activism. We published the Low Carbon Transition Plan in 2009, which was designed to encourage the development of a strong low-carbon manufacturing capacity in this country by supporting a British-based offshore wind industry, capitalising on the UK's wave and tidal sector strength, providing venture capital support for developing low-carbon businesses, providing capital investment to establish the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and supporting electric vehicles. I wanted to hear from the Minister tonight that the Government intend to continue to support these initiatives—or, as my noble friend Lord Haskel said, are we going to miss out on a huge opportunity for this country?

There are issues that we have to tackle, such as skills, as my noble friend Lord Haskel said; support for UK manufacturing; and the need to set high standards to ensure a level playing field for UK companies. Government procurement policy can have a hugely positive impact in this area. We can provide practical support, as my noble friend Lord Bhattacharyya said. As my noble friend Lord Giddens said, business needs signals about what carbon price intervention is likely. Will the Government agree to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change on the potential extension of CCS to gas? What does a low-carbon economy mean when this is translated into jobs? My noble friend Lord Woolmer spoke of the huge potential of CCS. I agree with him. His comments about the overcapacity that is required to give confidence for investment in the future is important. Another point about CCS is that, given that coal will continue to be used extensively and globally, developing CCS technology has huge potential for our ability to export UK-based technology. It is a vital area that we need to support in future.

There are positive signals about what the coalition has agreed to, but action has not been so encouraging, as my noble friend Lord Berkeley said. I worry that the Government are returning to the 1980s philosophy of non-intervention in industry in this country. There has been confusion over the Government's approach to nuclear energy. I have heard what Ministers have said, but in industry there is great concern about the Government's policy and a lack of confidence in what it means. The decision on Sheffield Forgemasters was not a sign to give confidence to industry. The decision to abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and take planning decisions back to Ministers will not give confidence to the energy sector. Ministers have said that they will make planning decisions within the 12 months that the IPC was expected to make them. Well, we shall see.

I hope that the Minister tonight will be able to respond positively and to give the right signals that we, the public and industry require. However, the absence of any Back-Benchers from his party speaking in this debate is not an encouraging sign.