Climate Change Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 7G, as an amendment to Amendment No. 7C in lieu: 7G: Line 11, at end insert ““and the Secretary of State shall publish details of the methodology used”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this group is of a complexity that I have not experienced before. Amendment No. 7G provides for the publication of methodology. As my colleagues in another place made clear on Report, Conservatives welcome the inclusion of aviation and shipping emissions in carbon budgets. I speak in support of the government amendments to Commons Amendment No. 7. In the debate in another place, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Energy and Climate Change indicated that tidying-up amendments would be necessary. As in your Lordships’ House, there was a long and detailed debate in the other place on the issue of emissions from aviation and shipping, and it is not necessary to repeat that debate here. We on these Benches welcome the Government’s amendments, but still consider them incomplete because of the absence of any requirement on the Secretary of State to publish the methodology used to arrive at the estimated tonnage of emissions from these sectors. We have argued at every stage of this legislation that transparency, and government accountability to the expert opinion of the Committee on Climate Change, are of paramount importance. That is why we have tabled Amendment No. 7G to government Amendment No. 7C. I hope that the Minister will assure me and the House that, whatever methodology is used to come to an estimated figure on emissions from aviation and shipping, this will be made available for parliamentary and public scrutiny. I understand the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, to government Amendment No. 7, and his reasons for proposing them. I hope that we all agree on the necessity for more fully drafted amendments in lieu, as the Government have put forward this evening. However, it is important to note an area of weakness that is addressed by the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson. The government amendment requires ““expected reportable emissions”” to be taken into account, rather than ““expected emissions””. This might sound like pedantry, but I have been made aware that the difference is significant. It is widely accepted that, particularly in the case of shipping emissions, there are weaknesses in the current reporting methodology that lead to the UK figures being significantly underestimated. We are all aware, thanks in part to the many debates in both Houses, that the Government are not in a position to legislate for a specific methodology to be used for the counting of emissions from international aviation and shipping. However, it is not sensible to limit the legislation to a method that is widely accepted to be flawed. We should make the remit flexible enough to include a better projection methodology, if or when one is developed in the future. I thank Friends of the Earth for bringing this issue to my attention and call on the Minister to give the assurances that I have sought from the Government. I beg to move.