Meeting of the Parliament 14 March 2023
I thank Edward Mountain and his committee for producing a very substantial report. I think that it will—unlike some committee reports, I have to say—actually help in the longer term. I hope that it will also bring some clarity to a very difficult situation, because change is hard. We would not be here discussing those world-leading climate change targets that were set in 2009 if it was not hard, so I accept that these are challenging circumstances. This is probably the biggest change since the industrial revolution. If we are going to get it right and get a just transition, we need to ensure that there is a proper plan that works effectively.
The Climate Change Committee was severe in its criticism, as I am sure the minister would accept. It said that the climate change targets that have been set by the Government
“are in danger of becoming meaningless”.
Those targets have gone from being world-leading climate change targets to being potentially “meaningless”.
That should worry us all, which is why the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee’s report is helpful and will, I hope, bring some clarity to the situation so that we can have the road map that has been mentioned frequently today.
There are a number of strong, competing priorities that have been set by Government, and some of those issues are difficult to resolve. We might take homes, for instance. As we all know, there are people in our constituencies who are absolutely desperate for a house. Their homes are overcrowded or they are staying with relatives, or they are in a house that is just too small for their needs or is very hard to heat. Those people are desperate for a home, and I am desperate to get houses built. The challenge concerns how efficient we make those houses. Sometimes, the more efficient we make a house, the higher the up-front costs. Of course, it will be of longer-term benefit and it will keep the fuel bills lower for the longer term, but the up-front cost is higher—it will cost us more to do it.
Such challenges are faced by council officials and councillors every day. They are in danger in that, if the requirements that they put on developers are too great, those developers might put their money into building houses somewhere else, in the area of another council that is perhaps not as strict. Meeting their housing requirements at the same time as meeting their climate change objectives of having energy-efficient homes in the right place, with 20-minute neighbourhoods, at the right time, and finding the right land—all of that—is challenging.
The same applies to energy schemes. We have big challenges on biodiversity and on where we get the stock from, at a low cost, while dealing with the climate. Transport has the same challenges of finance, immediate needs, long-term climate and biodiversity needs and through-life costs. All of those are massive challenges that we must resolve.