Examination of Witnesses (Questions 60
- 64)
TUESDAY 17 APRIL 2007
MR GARETH
STACE, MR
ROGER SALOMONE,
MR JEFF
TETLOW, MR
JOHN HILL
AND MR
DAVID MIDDLETON
Q60 Mark Lazarowicz: What is your
view of the suggestion of a three-year or even one-year budget
or target?
Mr Salomone: If you did go for
a one-year budget, the budgets would be a hostage to fortune.
You would be very likely to regularly miss those budgets because
we all know that gas prices can spike, you can have different
fluctuations in weather year-on-year, whereas over a five-year
period those kinds of things are going to be more stable and I
think if you did have the yearly budgets and those unforeseen
fluctuations, whether it is in growth, weather or gas prices,
you would probably end up borrowing from the next one quite heavily,
and I do not think that is the idea of carbon budgeting.
Q61 Mark Lazarowicz: What is the
Business Council's view of that area?
Mr Middleton: I think we would
largely agree with what has just been said, sir. I think we are
also worried about the issue of responsibility of reporting within
the framework. As I mentioned earlier on, where does responsibility
lie, and although we welcome five-year periods as being periods
which stimulate investment and forward business planning, from
a political dimension if the target has been set who, five years
down the track, is responsible if that target is not achieved?
We like the idea of this all going into statute but where does
the responsibility lie in terms of accountability within Parliament
as to who set the game in place in the first instance?
Q62 Mark Lazarowicz: Can I ask one
other question to the Business Council as well. You have a proposal
in your paper for a carbon currency with the Committee on Climate
Change setting interest rates. It is probably quite a complex
proposal so unless you want to comment briefly on it today, it
would be helpful, if you have any information or a paper giving
more details about the proposals, if you could send that to the
Committee.
Mr Middleton: If I may say in
response to that, Chairman, we like the idea but in all honesty
we need to do a lot more work on it ourselves. We are very taken
with the idea but please do not question us in detail about it
yet. I would just put my hand up and say we have not done that.
We would welcome the opportunity of doing that and we would welcome
the opportunity of working with government to explore that idea
further. If you can do it with monetary policy we think there
is a similarity in terms of carbon value.
Q63 Mark Lazarowicz: When you have
looked at it in more detail and you think it works it would helpful
to let us know!
Mr Middleton: We would certainly
like to come back to you.
Mark Lazarowicz: Thank you.
Q64 Joan Walley: On that point I
think we will watch this space with interest. Can I thank each
of you. It has been a very informative session and thank you for
the work you do and for taking the time and coming along and sharing
it with us today.
Mr Middleton: Thank you very much
for the opportunity, Chairman.
Mr Salomone: Thank you.
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