Circular Economy

Lord Teverson Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Teverson (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, for this debate. She mentioned Jaguar Land Rover and I think that we were both at an event where JLR talked about its new innovations. But what it did not do was to shout about the fact that 70%—this is a well-known statistic—of Land Rovers ever produced are still operating on the roads, not just here but across what was the British Commonwealth and the rest of the world as well. But as the noble Lord, Lord Young, said so well, no doubt many of them from the early days are now extremely energy-inefficient by current standards.

There are two big challenges: population growth, and rising income and consumption expectations within the world. They can be solved in only two fundamental ways. One is the decarbonisation of energy and greater energy efficiency. The other is the circular economy and ensuring that our consumption does not outpace the ability of our planet to replenish those resources. That is why the circular economy is absolutely essential. Within a more international framework, it surprised me how few people have heard of the circular economy, so one of the great imperatives is to get that concept far better understood. It may have been invented in the 1960s but the understanding of it is still very small.

I was absolutely delighted that the European Commission, having junked or disposed of the original circular economy package has come back with another—I hope improved—version of it. Surely if there is something important that Europe can do, and do well, in a single market of half a billion people it is to take this area forward in terms of culture, in the way that industry works and in the competitiveness of the European economy. So with the Government being enthusiastic about Europe and the European Union for the first time in a long while, I challenge the Government and the Minister to take this area forward.

I will make four very quick points to the Minister. First, I believe that in the past Defra has not been that engaged in this area, so will it become far more engaged? Secondly, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, mentioned eco design. Surely this is an area where British industry could really thrive. Will the Government help it to lead in that area? Thirdly, in negotiating the transatlantic trade treaty—the TTIP—do we need to bring the circular economy into such negotiations, if only to defend our package against other sides? I will very much welcome that agreement if it is made, but do we need to take it into consideration there? Finally, I echo the mention by the noble Lord, Lord Rees, of the marine environment, where pollution by plastics is a major challenge that needs to be resolved.