Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Eighth sitting).
14:04 Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Hobhouse. I rise to speak to amendments 88 and 89, which together relate to spatial development strategies and their content. The important point is that spatial development strategies should provide properly for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Currently, the Bill says that they “may” provide for those matters. From the Liberal Democrats’ point of view, spatial development strategies must provide for tackling climate change.
Amendment 89 seeks to change the Bill’s current wording so that instead of saying that spatial development strategies may consider mitigation “or” adaptation, it says that they must consider mitigation “and” adaptation. It seems perverse that it should be one or the other. That may not be the intention, and no doubt the Minister will have a lengthy explanation as to why the Bill is drafted as it is, but our position is that climate change must be tackled in spatial development strategies. It is not an either/or in terms of adaptation and mitigation: it needs to be both.
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Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat)
I rise to speak to Lib Dem amendments 89 and 123. I associate myself with the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington and the hon. Member for North Herefordshire. Climate change mitigation and adaption are needed. Mitigation is about preventing climate change and adaptation is about dealing with the effects of climate change that we have not been able to prevent.
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14:11 Matthew Pennycook (Labour)
On amendment 89, although I appreciate the desire of the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington for clarity on the matter, I do not agree that any changes are needed to clarify the provision. Proposed new section 12D(4)(b) already enables spatial development strategies to describe infrastructure for both mitigating and adapting to climate change. It does not need to be one or the other.
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14:19 Matthew Pennycook (Labour)
“must be designed to secure that the use and development of land in the strategy area contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.”
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Ellie Chowns (Green)
(cb) any reports and strategies produced under the Climate Change Act 2008,”
This amendment would require Natural England to consider the Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan and any reports or strategies published under the Climate Change Act when preparing an EDP.
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17:20 Ellie Chowns (Green)
It is widely recognised that the climate and nature crises are deeply interconnected. However, although the Planning and Infrastructure Bill rightly requires Natural England to consult the Environment Agency and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, it fails to require it to consult the Climate Change Committee or the Office for Environmental Protection. Furthermore, when developing an environmental delivery plan, although there is an obligation to have regard to the current environmental improvement plan and any strategies under the Environment Act 2021, there is no obligation to consider the Climate Change Act 2008 or the Government’s carbon budget delivery plan.
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17:24 Matthew Pennycook (Labour)
Amendment 52 would introduce a requirement for Natural England to have regard to the Government’s carbon budget delivery plan and any reports or strategies produced under the Climate Change Act 2008 when preparing an environmental delivery plan. As I have set out, clause 53 is clear that Natural England must have regard to the environmental improvement plan when preparing an environmental delivery plan. As the environmental improvement plan covers net zero, that will ensure that Natural England adequately and appropriately considers those issues when preparing an environmental delivery plan.
Additionally, the Bill gives Natural England the flexibility to have regard to any other strategies or plans it considers relevant. Again, we are trusting Natural England to make judgments that benefit nature; that is the intention of the fund. Furthermore, as environmental delivery plans discharge only environmental obligations relating to specific environmental features, climate change and carbon emissions will still need to be considered by developers at the planning permission stage.
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Ellie Chowns (Green)
“(fa) the Climate Change Committee,
This amendment would add the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Environmental Protection to the list of parties who must be consulted on a draft EDP by Natural England.
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17:27 Ellie Chowns (Green)
I will not repeat the points I made in my previous speech, which were effectively about the same substance. However, it seems an oversight that the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Environmental Protection are not named in the long list of organisations to be consulted on an EDP. I gently ask the Minister to take that point away and to treat it as a constructive suggestion, to ensure that we have clarity and that the voices of those crucial bodies are included, alongside those of all the other organisations that are to be consulted on a draft EDP.
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17:31 Matthew Pennycook (Labour)
Amendment 53, tabled by the hon. Member for North Herefordshire, echoes her previous amendment, as she rightly acknowledged. It would add the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Environmental Protection to the list of bodies that Natural England must consult when producing an environmental delivery plan. As set out previously, public consultation gives any organisation or individual an opportunity to provide views, without their being specifically listed in the legislation. The existing drafting would therefore allow the Office for Environmental Protection and the Climate Change Committee to provide comment through the consultation process where they think appropriate, rather than requiring Natural England to seek their views for every environmental delivery plan.
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17:35 Ellie Chowns (Green)
The fact that there is a long list of 10 people that it should consult indicates that the Government think it is important that certain parties be consulted. I suggest that the Climate Change Committee and the OEP ought to be in that list. If the Minister is not willing to put this in the Bill, I ask him to consider putting it in the regulations or guidance that he is indicating in paragraph (i). I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
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