Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 39
39
However, experience shows that Parliamentary scrutiny of carbon budgets has too often been cursory.
Conclusion
However, experience shows that Parliamentary scrutiny of carbon budgets has too often been cursory. The Sixth Carbon Budget, despite setting a legally binding emissions limit with implications for public spending, 65 infrastructure and everyday life, did not remotely receive commensurate Parliamentary focus. That approach is no longer defensible. As delivery of carbon budgets becomes more complex, more intrusive and more politically contested, Parliament must be given adequate opportunity to scrutinise the assumptions, trade-offs and risks that underpin them. Robust scrutiny of the Seventh Carbon Budget is essential to democratic accountability and to sustaining confidence in its delivery. Parliament must not be reduced to a rubber stamp for legally binding climate decisions of this scale and consequence. (Conclusion, Paragraph 153)