§ Lord Hunt of Chesterton asked Her Majesty's Government:
§ What is their energy policy in the light of the 22nd report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
§ The Minister for Science, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)My Lords, the recommendations in the report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution will be taken into account when the Government finalise their climate change programme in the autumn. We aim to make a full response to the report's 87 recommendations within a year. That is the normal time frame for responding to Royal Commission reports.
§ Lord Hunt of ChestertonMy Lords, what will the Government be doing, along with United Nations agencies, to monitor other countries' actions in respect of the convention?
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleMy Lords, the UK is working closely with the commission and the International Energy Agency to monitor projections of emissions and how they compare with the Kyoto targets and the policies to deliver savings.
§ The Lord Bishop of HerefordMy Lords, can the Minister give us any indication when the House will be able to debate that very important Royal Commission report? In view of the great urgency of countering climate change, as set out in the report, will he prevail on his noble friend Lord Whitty to reconsider his comment in the House a week ago that, on CO2 emissions, the total volume of traffic is not the issue? Even at this late stage, road and air traffic limitation targets could be introduced in the Transport Bill.
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleMy Lords, it will be for the usual channels to consider when such a debate can take place. I think that I can speak authoritatively for my noble friend in saying that the answer to the question about the Transport Bill is "No".
§ Lord EzraMy Lords, will the Government's forthcoming statement deal with the period beyond 2010? They have a demanding objective for 2010 that we may get somewhere near, but with the withdrawal 576 of the nuclear-powered stations, the problems after that date will be much more serious. We ought to be planning for that now.
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleMy Lords, the finalisation of the climate change programme, which will come in the autumn, will give more consideration to the long-term position. As the noble Lord says, the target for 2010 is very demanding, but the situation after that will be even more difficult, particularly on the assumption of a run-down of nuclear energy.
§ Lord Mackay of ArdbrecknishMy Lords, has the Minister been made aware of the increase in pollution arising from Internet shopping? A study in the Netherlands has shown that Internet shopping has already added 17 per cent to the traffic involved in buying household goods. If that carries on, the Government will have a real problem with increasing road traffic pollution. What do they propose to do about that?
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleMy Lords, although I know quite a bit about Internet shopping, I was not aware of that fact. There is another school of thought that equally confidently believes that Internet shopping will help by cutting the transport requirements of major supermarket chains, which is clearly a highly desirable goal.