Climate Change: Extreme Weather

Lord Lawson of Blaby Excerpts

Wednesday 9th April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

I am extremely grateful for my noble friend’s intervention and I agree with every word that he has said.

[Lord Lawson of Blaby (Con)]

My Lords, is it not clear that my noble friend the Minister is completely mistaken in saying that it is not a question of mitigation or adaptation but both? There are competing claims on resources, and we have to decide which is our priority. Is it to decide single-handedly to decarbonise the world and thus, to no useful purpose, push up British energy prices, make fuel more expensive for British homes and litter the countryside with wind farms and solar panels? Is it not better instead to devote our resources to increasing our resilience to extreme weather events, whether or not the frequency of such events is marginally increased by global warming?