Speech on the Climate Change Report from the Assembly Environment Committee

Speech by David Ford MLA delivered to Northern Ireland Assembly on Mon 7th Dec 2009

Speaking in the debate on the motion: "That this Assembly approves the report of the Committee for the Environment on its inquiry into climate change; and calls on the Minister of the Environment, in liaison with Executive colleagues, to bring forward a timetable for implementing the recommendations contained in the report", David Ford MLA said: "As yet another member of the Committee for the Environment, I welcome the fact that the report, which has taken most of the year to produce, has been published. I thank the Committee staff, DOE officials and representatives of a huge range of NGOs who assisted us in our work. One of the most useful aspects of the inquiry was a practical visit to AFBI at Hillsborough to see the work that it was doing on renewable energy and on the remediation of methane production from ruminants. It was an example of where Northern Ireland could be at the forefront of the debate, but sadly, at the moment, is not."

Mr Beggs: "Does the Member accept that another important issue, which has not received enough coverage, is the fact that farmers can save money and protect the environment by carefully timing the spreading of slurry and artificial fertiliser so that nitrates are not wasted and given off into the atmosphere?"

David Ford: "I agree entirely.

"It is clear from the report that we need to do much more about establishing targets than we have done so far in Northern Ireland. An 80% carbon reduction by 2050 is an ambitious target on one level, but on another it is almost useless as 2050 appears to be so far away. It is also rather unfortunate that, in answer to a number of questions that I tabled to every Department recently, it appears that so far there has been hardly any engagement between our 11 Departments and the UK Committee on Climate Change, which is where the expertise resides at a level that is available to all four nations of the UK and where that evidence should be being brought forward and implemented.

"The 10:10 campaign, which is being supported by a large number of businesses and by local councils across the water, is committed to making a significant, urgent and immediate cut in carbon reduction. That is setting an example of what we should be doing. We need to establish targets that are not so far out there that people do not recognise the reality. We need targets that deal with the short and medium term and that are specific and sectoral. So far in Northern Ireland, we have failed to make any of that happen.

"One section of the report deals with the structures that we need. In her introduction, the Committee Chairperson highlighted a potential role for the Audit Office, whereby it would look at environmental management issues as well as financial management issues and report to the Assembly through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

"I have some concerns as to whether we should have adopted the Westminster model of having a separate Environmental Audit Committee instead. Others took the understandable view that creating another Committee in the Assembly might not see it well staffed and able to focus on the issue. However, if we go down that road, questions must be asked to ensure that the Audit Office is adequately staffed and able to engage across its double range of responsibilities and that the PAC similarly develops structures that would ensure that matters are dealt with properly.

"It is clear that there has to be some structure that ensures the full basis of operation for every part of our environmental governance, which is not yet in place. The problem that remains is that responsibility for climate change is scattered across too many Departments. The DOE has a certain amount of responsibility, particularly through its climate change unit. Yet, that unit effectively has no clout whatsoever; despite his being diplomatic and tactful when he gave evidence to the Committee, the permanent secretary was unable to persuade me that it was anything other than a small unit within a relatively small Department, which is not being listened to across the range of government.

"I suspect that we should be looking at an equivalent of the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change, which would have an overarching responsibility for all aspects of climate change policy alongside energy as the key part of that. Whichever Department has that responsibility, it is clear that the climate change unit that resides in the DOE must be part of the key Department. It must be strengthened and have the ability to manage across every aspect of government in a way that it is currently unable to do. That requires a political buy-in at Executive level to ensure that every Department recognises the expertise that exists in that unit, draws on it, listens to it and develops from it.

"Towards the end of the recommendations, mention is made of sustainable development. Responsibility for that has been taken away from the DOE and placed within OFMDFM. There is no doubt that the expertise to understand sustainable development was in the DOE. OFMDFM has the clout to ensure that issues are dealt with across Departments, but that joined-up issue has not yet arisen. It seems that we have lost out because sustainability is not being addressed adequately in OFMDFM, given all the other problems that reside in that Department. If the report is to mean anything, it must mean joined-up government, ministerial involve ment and drawing on the expertise that is available.

"It is a matter of considerable regret that the report notes that, realistically, we could not draw up a Northern Ireland climate change Bill at this stage. We do not have the evidence; we do not necessarily have the expertise; and we need to work on a lot of factors, because there is no doubt that we are lagging behind Scotland and Wales, and we need to move forward on that agenda as quickly as possible."

Motion approved.

Related Link:

[Hansard 7 Dec 2009 | Report on the Inquiry into Climate Change]