Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have sympathy with the arguments put by the noble Lord, Lord Woolmer, but on the other hand, as I have said before, this is a Bill for the long term. In World War 2 we had rationing—or, rather, you had; I was an infant in Australia—and I am sure it was difficult, but at the time it was necessary. It is not clear, as we approach the middle of the century—which is what the Bill is looking at—that we will not be in a position where something of wartime immediacy and urgency will be needed. For that reason I am certainly not urging that we put in the Bill something that says, ““We will do this””, but I find it odd that we should put in the Bill something that says, ““We won’t do this””. That is why I hope that the amendment will not end up in the Bill.