My Lords, most of us are agreed that the UK simply has to make a significant contribution to addressing climate change. However, most of us are agreed that in the drive to reduce greenhouse emissions by increasing the amount of electricity generated from renewable resources we must avoid an irresponsible and tragic situation whereby we are irreparably damaging the environment by siting infrastructure inappropriately in vulnerable landscapes. I should at this point make it clear that I am honorary president of the Campaign for National Parks and a patron of Friends of the Lake District. As I am sure is the case with many noble Lords, I have frequent correspondence and discussions with organisations such as the CPRE, the WWF and the rest. It is interesting to find the strength of concern about the implications of the Bill.
In preparing for this debate, I have found one brief in particular to be extremely helpful and I hope that
other noble Lords have had an opportunity to see it. It was produced by the John Muir Trust and I find it very telling.
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I would argue that we have all learnt that, in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, the rape of the English countryside was a disaster and, with hindsight, we see that it need not have happened. Now that we are going into this new, advanced technological age, it seems to me that, with that experience behind us and, I hope, our value systems enhanced, we should be more anxious than ever that things are done in a way that is compatible with our wider social responsibilities and, indeed, our value systems.
The countryside and our landscapes, including the national parks, are priceless assets for the United Kingdom—they are literally without price. They contribute powerfully to the physical and mental/psychological well-being of the nation and its spiritual regeneration. It would be unforgivable if we inadvertently allowed them to be eroded and lost.
Climate change targets themselves will not safeguard the environment. Environmental considerations for landscapes, heritage, precious ecosystems and biodiversity, all of which are highly threatened, need to be interwoven explicitly in public policy and given proper weighting, rather than treated as afterthoughts.
I suggest that the strategic policy statement is an ideal opportunity to ensure that a more coherent approach is taken to determining where infrastructure should and should not be sited. It provides a system for dealing with cross-departmental and cross-border issues. It could also be argued that it can be used to introduce measures to ensure that government decision-making on energy is freed from vested interests and pays proper attention to environmental issues.
I will address the amendments specifically, starting with Amendment 41, which states:
“Before designating a statement for the purposes of this Part, the Secretary of State must carry out an appraisal of the sustainability of the policy set out in the statement”.
The strategic policy statement provided for in the Bill is a national-level public policy document that could have a major influence on infrastructure planning and development. Our natural resources are finite and the health of ecosystems, biodiversity and, indeed, people depends on how well we safeguard them. It is vital, therefore, that public policy is sustainable and seen to be sustainable. Amendment 41 would ensure that the Secretary of State undertakes an environmental sustainability assessment of the strategic policy statement.
Amendment 42 states:
“The Authority must demonstrate that it has complied with its general environmental duties, including section 11A of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 … to have regard to National Park purposes and obligations under European wildlife directives”.
The Government have confirmed that national parks, the Broads and areas of outstanding natural beauty have the highest status of protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty. Each of those nationally designated areas has specific statutory purposes that help to ensure their continued protection. There is a
general statutory duty on all relevant authorities and public bodies to have due regard to the purposes of designation of those areas, which in each case includes the conservation of natural beauty.
This amendment to Clause 120 would ensure that the strategic policy statement specifically included reference to the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority’s responsibility on national landscape designations. It would also ensure that the authority demonstrated compliance with these duties. Currently there is no legal requirement to demonstrate compliance. This amendment would put that right. I anticipate that the amendment may be challenged by the Government because it introduces a requirement that is over and above current provisions. I argue that while the duty is currently a legislative one, compliance is not enshrined in law. The amendment would address this oversight. The amendment would also require the authority to have regard to its obligations under the conservation of wild birds and habitats directive, which would be very welcome given the perilous state of our biodiversity.
Amendment 42A would add a subsection to Clause 120 stating that the authority must have regard to the effect on the environment of activities connected with the conveyance of gas through pipes or with the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity. As I understand it, Clause 126(1) repeals Section 4AB of the Gas Act 1986 and Section 3B of the Electricity Act 1989, which provide for the Secretary of State to issue guidance on social and environmental policies. This requires the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority to have regard to the effect on the environment of activity connected with the conveyance of gas through pipes or with the generation, transmission, distribution or supply of electricity. My proposed amendment to Clause 120 would make it clear in the Bill that this environmental requirement would continue to be met by the strategic policy statement. In dealing with this proposed amendment, it is incumbent on the Government to—I shall put it as gently as I can—explain why they have removed reference to GEMA’s environmental responsibilities from the primary legislation and where the social and environmental guidance to GEMA will be enshrined, if indeed it is to be enshrined at all.
Amendment 43 proposes an independent strategic energy commission comprising energy, engineering and economic experts. A successful energy policy would achieve a secure, adequate and affordable energy supply while protecting our local, national and global environment as much as possible in achieving the critical reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In this respect, is it perhaps arguable that commercial interests are being allowed to have too much influence on government policy? To achieve our emission reductions, we have become reliant on public money through direct and indirect subsidy and a planning system that remains weighted in favour of development. There is far less focus on energy conservation and research into new technologies. Meanwhile, cost-benefit analyses of wind installations need to be more rigorous, for example, by taking into account the total cost of conveying the energy from the generator to the consumer or the other additional costs involved with renewables. Failure
to be sufficiently rigorous can lead to inappropriate decisions on the siting of wind power installations and risks overengineering the grid and imposing unnecessary costs on consumers and the environment.
This proposed amendment to Clause 122 therefore makes provision for the establishment of an independent body that could be modelled on the Committee on Climate Change, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence or similar venerable institutions to examine the technical and economic aspects of current UK-wide energy policy and to consider the viability and costs of electricity generation, transmission and distribution.
This would need to comprise technical experts with no vested interests in electricity generation, supply or delivery. I recognise that the Government may argue that there are already safeguards in place, such as GEMA, Ofgem, and the Committee on Climate Change, to ensure that they receive independent advice. However, this does not appear to be the position of Ofgem. Currently, it is consulting on new government models for electricity transmission planning and regulation that would involve a stronger role for a co-ordinating function to sit between commercial transmission operators and the Government. Granted, this is being talked about only in the context of transmission, but there is a logic in applying the principle across strategic energy policy and the management as a whole.
The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland—the Scottish equivalent of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering—has written an open letter to Professor David MacKay, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, calling for a total systems cost-analysis approach to be used for assessing schemes and for the involvement of an independent, engineering-led competent body. If the current strategic energy, planning and management arrangements are considered adequate, how have we ended up closing a fifth of the UK’s generating capacity when demand is set to double over the next 40 years?
I shall take Amendments 44 and 45 together. In background briefing, it is fair to say that the ECC has made it clear that the Government intend wider public consultation in drafting the strategic policy statement. The Government have recognised that consultation will be important in order to ensure that the priorities and outcomes are well chosen and do not have unintended effects. As well as the statutory requirements for consultation, I gather that the Government will expect to engage informally with a range of stakeholders to ensure that the draft is based on good-quality information. This is crucial. Surely it will be vital to ensure that the right stakeholders, including technical experts, consumer groups, land managers, planners and NGOs concerned with environmental impacts, are involved. The amendment to Clause 122 would ensure that the consultation arrangements are made specific in the Bill.
Amendments 46, 47 and 48 will depend on what happens in our deliberations to earlier amendments. Amendment 49 requires a statement setting out how the strategy and policy statement relates to other statements of government policy on energy, such as national policy statements and other strategic national
policies, including, for example, transport and communications. The Government’s policy on energy is clearly complex and is set out in a number of documents. It would greatly assist the understanding of not only those routinely involved in government consultations, but also the wider audience that the Government seek to engage for the relationship between the strategic policy statement and other statements of government policy, if this were clearly articulated in the Bill.
Similarly, to ensure coherence with other policies, the strategic policy statement should surely set out how energy policy is to be co-ordinated with other UK-wide strategic infrastructure planning, for example on transport and communications. Such an overview would enable better decision-making, when siting major infrastructure, and avoid unnecessary impacts on the landscape. This amendment would make clear in the Bill the relationship between the strategic policy statement and other statements of government policy for the purpose of co-ordination at the strategic level.
Amendment 50, which relates to Clause 125, proposes the ways in which the authority has had regard to the obligations imposed under the European landscape convention should be included. The United Kingdom is a party to the European landscape convention. This covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It concerns landscapes that might be considered outstanding as well as everyday or degraded landscapes. The convention is aimed at the protection, management and planning of all landscapes and at raising awareness of the value of a living landscape. Parties to the convention have certain legal obligations with respect to safeguarding the landscape. Given the likely scope and scale of energy infrastructure development—for example, it has been estimated that £22 billion will be spent on gas and electricity networks in the forthcoming year, according to the Electricity Networks Strategy Group paper entitled Our Electricity Transmission Network: A Vision for 2020, published in 2012—I argue that the strategic policy statement should make specific reference to how the UK’s obligations under the European landscape convention will be met. I beg to move.
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