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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