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Energy Bill

I have just received advice to respond in the exactly same way as my noble friend just has, rendering therefore my initial contribution quite otiose. We have got to get the strategy right. I recognise and have freely acknowledged in my contribution the virtues of this form of electricity generation, but I have also outlined some of the obvious difficulties. They are sufficient for us to want to continue to look at them seriously against a background of significant developments when the new directive comes into force next spring. That is a better strategy than being tied to delivering within one year, which is what the amendment seeks. My noble friend Lord Puttnam asks why efforts are not made to look at effectiveness. There is no reason why that cannot be encouraged with regard to public buildings. There is the question of the additional cost involved; that is the issue the householder faces. We will certainly look at that. The difficulty is that isolated buildings of this kind may not prove, in a very substantial way, the more general case that relates to the much wider factors of how we tackle the strategy for 2020 and what the relative cost-benefit analysis is. I assure my noble friend that across all departments the Government are concerned to respond to the climate change agenda. That is taken as an absolute given, hence the point I made earlier about government buildings being carbon neutral in the near future. On the more general issue raised by the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, that we are using consultation merely for delay, the trouble with consultation is that we are certainly damned if we don’t, but today we are damned if we do. The scene is rapidly evolving. Of course time is of the essence. My noble friend Lord Whitty is right that, with the 2020 targets established, we know the constraints that they impose on the necessity of effective action. That puts all the emphasis on ““effective””, not just on ““action””, which might be misguided. I hope the noble Baroness will think that I have made a sufficient case for her to withdraw her amendment today, although I guess I will see it at some future date.