MPs and peers back climate change bill
The committee's memebers are drawn from both houses of parliament
Friday, 03, Aug 2007 12:01
The draft climate change bill raises unprecedented questions about the effectiveness of domestic legislation, a group of MPs and peers has said.
Parliament's joint committee on the draft climate change bill made the claim in its report published today on the proposed legislation, which seeks to establish an "overarching framework" for efforts to cut carbon emissions in Britain.
Among the issues it creates are the relationship between government and parliament, where legal responsibility for its "core purpose" lies and how much the government should enforce or persuade in carrying out its requirements.
Despite these questions the committee roundly backs the bill's purpose as "evidence of an ambitious determination to keep the UK at the front line of international action to mitigate climate change".
Chairman Lord Puttnam said: "We believe this to be an exceptionally significant piece of legislation because of the scale of the issues it seeks to address, the impact its enactment is likely to have on individuals and communities, and the government's intention that it should serve as an overarching framework for further and more detailed complementary legislation."
"The government's biggest challenge is to ensure that we all understand the consequences of both our own and future generations failing to achieve the targets enshrined in this groundbreaking bill," he added.
Those targets are a minimum 28 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 and a 60 per cent cut by 2050.