Latest progress report of the Committee on Climate Change

Yesterday, 30th June, I was at Westminster for the latest progress report of the Committee on Climate Change.  Long queue to get into Portcullis House (police pacing up and down ostentaciously holding automatic weapons as if this was France).  The presentation was held in the Attlee Suite, a long room with seating laid out in horizontal rows.

Cups of over-strong coffee and miniscule chocolate biscuits.  About a hundred and fifty people were there.  The room was too warm.

The launch of the report began at 10.15 with an introduction by Tim Yeo MP (in a voice made for droning): 

"Progress is not fast enough... the government has accepted the fourth carbon budget... policies to decarbonise a whole range of sectors..."

Division bells rang at intervals.

Lord Adair Turner then delivered the main part of the presentation, bowed over the podium as if his head was weighed down by his shock of iron-grey hair:

"At any one time we have a fifteen-year vision... we will need in the mid-2020s an acceleration... we will have to be on the green path [referring to a graph] to avoid playing catch-up...

"We do not believe in the St Augustine approach of emissions control but not yet... we have to look at indicators to make sure we are on the fifteen-year path... electricity market reform will be a key...

"The recession has produced a fundamental shift downwards in the underlying trend of emissions reduction... in public policy there are always lead-times to increase the intensity... we are well-behind on solid wall insulation..."

We considered renewables, new boiler designs and electric car sales.

There was a point when one of the slides had the headings wrong, but Adair Turner spotted this and adroitly talked us through the graphs, giving the impression that he was completely in control of his brief.

The presentation ended with a look ahead to future areas of the Committee's attention - bioenergy, shipping aviation.

Questions followed, including a very interesting question on the "export" of carbon emissions via the import of manufactured goods - Adair Turner said this was an important area but the Committee can only look at areas the government asks it to look at.

The meeting ended.  Some networking in the minutes that followed.  Then to Kings Cross for the lunch at The Driver restaurant.