Climate Change Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Oates
Main Page: Lord Oates (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Oates's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(3 years, 2 months ago)
Lords ChamberAchieving the targets that we have already set will be difficult enough. I like the noble Baroness’s ambition to go even further and faster, but I think that we will stick with what we have got for the moment.
My Lords, a year ago when I asked the Minister whether it was not about time that the Government had a credible short-term action plan to tackle the climate emergency, he replied:
“Indeed, and we will be setting this out in due course.”—[Official Report, 6/10/20; col. 517.]
In light of the IPCC report, which makes it clear that global warming of between 1.5 and 2 degrees will be exceeded this century without drastic cuts in emissions, when can we expect to see that credible short-term action plan? I emphasise “credible”.
As I said in response to the previous question, we have published a number of our strategies. The heat and buildings strategy is to be published shortly; the net-zero strategy will be published before COP. We need to set an example, and we intend to do just that. These are difficult decisions involving a lot of different players within government, but we will endeavour to do so as quickly as possible.