Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, one of the great advantages I have in responding to the Minister at this stage is that he has said absolutely nothing that he has not said in all the earlier debates. In almost every case those points have been addressed this afternoon by me or by the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull. It is always rather bad luck on a Minister to be given all these helpful papers from his civil servants before the debate as he feels that he has to do justice to them. However, we are so fond of the Minister partly because of these wonderful revelatory moments when he gives away just a little of his own thinking. He did it this afternoon when he said, ““I agree with the sentiments of much of it””. That gave us a clue about what had been going on in those conclaves with his colleagues at the other end of the House. I must challenge two of his observations. He said that I had removed the focus from the 2050 objective. That is a curious remark when the very opening sentence of my amendment sets the Secretary of State to, "““prepare such proposals and policies … as the Secretary of State reasonably considers will—ensure””." If that does not direct the Secretary of State to focus on something, I do not know what does. The Minister also asserted that I had claimed that the Secretary of State had no power to influence. However, the whole of my argument was that, by the preparation of policies, the five-year budget process and so on, he does have the ability to influence. What he does not have is the ability to ensure. The Minister kept calling in aid Clause 5, which apparently is going to bail him out of the mess that his department has put him in. However, Clause 5 states: "““It is the duty of the Secretary of State … to ensure””." We are back to that word ““ensure””, which is exactly the word we are criticising in what is now Clause 2. We have gone over this many times. All I would like to do at this stage, before the crucial final words I should utter, is to thank all those who have supported my amendments at this and earlier stages, particularly those who helped to draft this amendment and who supported it today. As this is the last occasion on which I will speak on the Bill in this House until it is sent back to us from another place, as I suppose it will be, I thank the Ministers for the courteous way in which they dealt with all the points we made. As I say, I also thank the Minister for those wonderful revelatory moments with which he has endeared himself to the House. If only his colleagues at the other end of the House really understood how this House works and how to influence it, they would not get into the mess in which they have got themselves on this occasion. I ask the House to vote for the amendment. I wish to test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 1) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 130; Not-Contents, 132. [Amendments Nos. 2 not moved.] Clause 13 [Duty to prepare proposals and policies for meeting carbon budgets]: [Amendment No. 3 not moved.] Clause 24 [Base years for targeted greenhouse gases other than CO2]: