Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I speak to my Amendment No. 47A as an amendment to Commons Amendment No. 47. This is one of the areas where the pace of understanding of climate change is getting quicker and quicker. A number of us were at a launch of One Vision: Consistency in Corporate Carbon Reporting by the CBI in a room in your Lordships’ House. The CBI is very much—I was going to say a convert, but that probably does not do it credit—a strong advocate of agreeing a sensible and appropriate carbon reporting system and getting it into place, but how long does it take to get the right system to which everybody applies in a consistent way? That is the question I have about the timescale, but very much agree with the view of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, that we need to do this quickly. Indeed, regarding slightly smaller or medium-sized businesses, the director of the corporate leaders’ group at the Institute of Directors said that once you realise that it is inevitably going to happen and that the only future is a low carbon future, you want to get on with it sooner rather than later. This is an area where business wants to move ahead, sees that it is right to do so and that there is competitive advantage and cost savings in moving in this direction. Therefore there is an urgent need to get these reporting standards right and implemented. Hence my shock, I suppose, when I read government Amendment No. 47. It reminded me of one of those plays one used to do at school. You used to have the Sheriff of Nottingham, who seemed to be the authoritative character and who would make a declaration. Here I suppose it is: "““The Secretary of State must, not later than 6th April 2012—" (a) make regulations””— and so forth, to which you thought, great. But then, of course, in the school play, there is an aside in brackets, ““and whispers off to the left””, or in this case: "““lay before Parliament a report explaining why no such regulations have been made””—" and the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham rides off. Come on, the Government talk all the time about giving certainty to business. I have spent most of my life in business and that is what you want from Government. Some things you may want them to get on with quicker. Some things you may not like particularly, but you want to know where you are. I cannot see any captain of industry, whether of a small business or one of the world’s largest companies, understanding why the Government make such a strong statement but then say, ““By the way, if we do not get around to doing it, we will put a report before Parliament. Why not?””. It gives absolutely the wrong signal. It says, ““Yes, we want to do this: we are committed, but we might not do it, and this is what we have to do when we fail””. It is a plan for failure. What business ever says, ““This is what we will do when we fail to deliver our corporate mission””? No one does so. One may have contingency plans for failure, but this is not a contingency plan; this is an alternative route—A or B. I do not understand why there is a plan B—a get-out clause in the Bill to broadcast to our corporate nation that, although it wants to get on with it, the Government have no conviction that they will able to make it. That is a great shame. Once again, the rug is pulled out from under the Government’s good intention. I do, however, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Davies, on his excellent explanation of why there should not be a trading scheme for government buildings. I wish that I had had that speech to put into one of my other speeches earlier on in the debate.