Carbon Budget Report - 24th March 2011

Damian Hinds (Conservative)

13. When he plans to respond to the Committee on Climate Change’s fourth carbon budget report.

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Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)

15. When he plans to respond to the Committee on Climate Change’s fourth carbon budget report.

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11:12 The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)

The Climate Change Act 2008 requires the Government to set the fourth carbon budget level in law no later than 30 June 2011. I anticipate that a statutory instrument will be laid before the House after the Easer recess.

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11:13 Simon Wright

The Committee on Climate Change recommended a tightening of the second and third carbon budgets in the light of the impact of the recession. Does the Minister agree that we must deliver on that recommendation and use the Committee’s report as a means of strengthening the UK’s global leadership in encouraging our international partners to tighten their emissions targets?

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11:13 Gregory Barker

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We must maintain our global leadership position, not only because it is important for tackling dangerous climate change, but because we want to grab market share in the new clean technology markets around the world, which are growing fast. We need to assert our leadership in the low-carbon markets, and to do so we need an ambitious policy to drive it at home.

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Gregory Barker

Clearly there is a huge investment agenda, and my right hon. Friend is right, but we see that as an opportunity as well as a cost. He will also know that the cost of doing nothing and standing by while climate change hits the world progressively through this century will be considerably greater than prudent early action.

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