2007

The Big Ask goes to the Lords
1 December 2007

The Big Ask went to the House of Lords in December 2007.

The Bill first goes to the 'Committee Stage'. This gives all peers a chance to look at the nitty gritty of the Bill - and suggest and debate ammendments.

A strong climate law

Friends of the Earth want to see the Bill strengthened in three key ways.

  • Bigger cuts
    The Government propose a 60 per cent cut of carbon dioxide by 2050. We need reductions of at least 80 per cent.
  • Annual targets
    The Government want five year budgets for CO2. We want shorter targets - to hold the current Parliament to account.
  • Aviation and shipping
    International flights and shipping emissions are excluded. We want these included.

Lords have their say

On the second day of the debate, the Lords looked at the suggestions to include annual milestones in the Bill.

Every peer who spoke supported the concept of milestones. The only exception was Lord Rooker - the Government Minister - who defended the Government's current position not to include them. 

The good news was that every argument that Lord Rooker made against milestones was challenged by a whole series of peers.

Lord Rooker eventually promised to go away and see if he can think of new ideas to make the annual reporting more robust. 

I can quite imagine in five years I'll be sitting here wishing we had annual targets I could screw the Minister to.


Lord Rooker, Department for Envrionment, Food and Rural Affairs

Next steps

The debate in the House of Lords will continue in the New Year. The Bill will then go for scrutiny in the House of Commons.

Friends of the Earth will be there every step of the way. The Bill has come as far as it has because so many people have supported The Big Ask, and contacted their MP.

We will need to keep this pressure on in 2008. But for the moment, we want say thank you to all of you that have helped us over the last year. Below is a short video from our parliamentary team to say thanks.

 

Thank you.

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