Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 680-684)

MR JOHN RILEY, DR LAURENCE MATTHEWS, MR BILL BUTCHER AND MR DOUG HOFFMAN

31 JANUARY 2007

  Q680  David Lepper: We have heard a lot about your views, all four of you, on the importance of decisive action, whatever that may be, by central government or local government. Mr Riley, you said a couple of things that got me thinking about networks spreading information and advice as well. You are an estate agent and you told us about some of the actions you have taken as an estate agent, through your profession. Do you find other estate agents like-minded, and is there any scope for them?

  Mr Riley: No, that is a problem.

  Q681  David Lepper: You also mentioned another network which I found interesting and that was the support you had had from Rotary. I imagine that was financial support. I am wondering whether there is any scope there in terms of national or international spreading of information through an organisation such as that, which you think is feasible.

  Mr Riley: As far as the estate agents are concerned, I failed miserably. I am part of an organisation called RE/MAX, which is one of the biggest estate agent networks in the world. I presented to the 70 office owners in Scotland, "Climate Change: the problem—it's urgent. I have a pile of leaflets here, guys, which you can give out with your schedules, if you would like to purchase a few". Nobody took me up on it, out of 70 estate agents. That was a bit galling. That did not work, therefore. In terms of the network, I think there is a big job that can be done. I am going to a meeting on Saturday where we will discuss how we can use various networks to spread the Contraction and Convergence message. If the churches are on board, there is a big job that the churches could do here to spread it to their congregations. So, yes, I do believe that is a way of doing it. The forum today is so interesting, because we are listening to what other people are doing. We are not aware of what is happening out there in the big world. It would be great to get some form of networks spread out across the country, where we can all go and listen to what is happening and take that message to our communities.

  Lynne Jones: It is a shame that Mr Riley appears to be the exception that proves the rule!

  Q682  Patrick Hall: Listening to this talk about cap and share, cap and trade, and all sorts of concepts around carbon trading allowances, what would happen if we had one of these schemes for this country and there were more people needing to consume more than their allowance and therefore needing to buy credits from people consuming less? It just does not add up, does it?

  Mr Butcher: That is the beauty of the market mechanism. The response there is that the price of carbon units goes up, until the system is back in balance.

  Mr Riley: There is the incentive to look at low carbon technologies and reduce your energy use. You cannot just say, "This is an infinite amount of carbon units". It just would not work. It has to be capped, if we are going to stay safe.

  Dr Matthews: The property market works perfectly happily, in the real world, here and now, on the basis of there being a finite supply of land in the country. We just have to move to a system where people realise that there is a finite supply of carbon emissions which we can, as a planet—and certainly as a country—emit and survive. What is safe?

  Q683  Patrick Hall: But you have to compel people to participate in this.

  Dr Matthews: Exactly.

  Q684  Patrick Hall: And that is a wholly different world from the one that we are in.

  Mr Riley: What is the alternative? That we try and persuade people and, 50 years down the road, we still have not managed to persuade them? Some scientists are saying that we need a 90% reduction by 2030.

  Patrick Hall: Some of you are going to write to the Committee to describe in simple English how this would work, and that would be helpful.

  Chairman: Thank you very much. It is always good, as a politician, to be posed the really difficult question and, in terms of the challenge you have thrown out with reference to personal allowances, you have genuinely given us a lot of food for thought.





 
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