Helen Goodman

Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab): I, too, am very sorry that my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) is not here and I send my condolences to him and his family. I congratulate him on the excellent work that he has done, which has brought the Bill so far in its passage. I am pleased to have the opportunity to support the Bill and to have been able to contribute as a member of the Standing Committee.

My main reason for supporting the Bill is my consciousness of the urgency of the problem. The chief scientist has made it absolutely clear that we have a short window of opportunity in which to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change. For example, it is not widely understood that it is possible that there will be a reversal of the Gulf stream, which would make this country much colder, not warmer. It is possible that countries such as Bangladesh could be flooded, and although people are worried at the moment about refugees and asylum seekers, if that happened, the current problems would pale into insignificance.

I agree with the hon. Member for Basingstoke(Mrs. Miller) about people being in denial. We must not move from denial to despair when we contemplate the problem. Action now will be much easier and more economic than action later. The key to achieving our target and tackling climate change effectively is a change to our culture.

In 1973, when I was a schoolgirl, I went to a summer fair in Ashbourne. I entered a competition about the environment that was run by Friends of the Earth, with a prize of membership of Friends of the Earth. I won the prize because I was the only person who had entered the competition, but I think that consciousness has been raised since then.

Fifteen years later, I was a Treasury civil servant when John Major was a Treasury Minister. We were having the annual round of spending cuts and he was thinking about cutting the home energy efficiency scheme, which was the forerunner of Warm Front. When I pointed out to him that the scheme was good and that it tackled fuel poverty, benefited the environment and created jobs, he agreed not to cut it. That is a good example of the way in which people are prepared to act once they understand the issues.

Mr. Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con): The hon. Lady says that people will act, but is sheaware that under her Government, according to a Government document on microgeneration, the number of people in fuel poverty rose by 1 million between 2003 and 2006?

Helen Goodman: I am not aware of those statistics. I must say that I am slightly sceptical about them, given our excellent Warm Front investment scheme, which is running at record levels.

Ms Dawn Butler (Brent, South) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that part of the reason for fuel poverty is that the fuel companies are overcharging low earners, so the reason is not necessarily any Government legislation or programme?

Helen Goodman: It is true that there are problems due to the charges of several of the intermediaries, but I will not go down that path because we are not considering that today.

When we examined the Bill in detail in Committee, it became evident that some of the old thinking still exists in small pockets of bureaucracy. In general, they are quite obscure, but planning and building regulations are absolutely vital to the situation. The fact that many of our constituents have contacted us to say that they want the Bill to get through shows that the tide has definitely turned with the general public.

Mr. Sarwar: Our constituents are extremely worried about the impact that climate change can have on communities and globally. My constituents have written me many e-mails and letters to ensure that I support the Bill. Why are the international community and developing nations not taking the problem seriously? What more can the Government do to exert maximum pressure on the United States and other nations to ensure that they put climate change at the top of the international agenda?

Helen Goodman: My hon. Friend anticipates one of my points. It is important that we take action and set a good example because although the UK’s emissions are not especially significant in global terms, because we have higher standards of living and consume much more than other countries, our carbon dioxide emissions per capita are higher. That is driving the position of India and China, which is why it is important that we pass the Bill and take practical measures.

The Bill is now in a better state than it was before it went into Committee and its provisions are now easier to implement. I especially welcome the accountability clause at the beginning of the Bill because if we are accountable and have to report annually, we will have an incentive to take more action. There are practical measures in the Bill on microgeneration, building regulations and combined heat and power.

Mrs. Maria Miller: The hon. Lady talks about taking more action. Does she agree that we should take additional action on air transport? We all know that24 per cent. of CO2 emissions come from transport in general. Emissions due to aviation represent an enormous part of that, but there is no tax on aviation fuel, which grossly distorts the cost of flying in environmental terms. Does she agree with the Environmental Audit Committee that we should consider introducing an air passenger duty tax that better reflects the environmental effects of emissions from planes?

Helen Goodman: As it happens, I am a member of the Standing Committee that is considering the Finance (No.2) Bill. We had such a discussion earlier this week. The hon. Lady is not right that there is no duty at all, but it is about half the level of the other duties. When we asked the Treasury Ministers about the matter, they said that they would not be able to take action until they had renegotiated international treaties. My feeling was that they should energise—

Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. I appreciate that it is not the hon. Lady’s fault that she has been led astray, but perhaps she can come back to the Bill.

Helen Goodman: Ultimately, climate change is a justice issue between the rich and the poor and between us and future generations. As the great economist Amartya Sen said, we should not abuse the environment to the detriment of future generations “simply through the accident of being born first”.

I hope that all hon. Members will support the Bill.

Speech in the House of Commons, 12 May 2005