Lord Deben:

If we could have started afresh, we would have been better to have pressed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA, to get its figures right earlier so we could have started on land use earlier. We could not do the work on it because we did not have the figures. I was not prepared, nor was my predecessor, to put out information which was not absolutely correct according to the statistics and the science. I should have said in my opening points that the other crucial aspect is that if one has a climate change committee, it has to get a reputation for being accurate and scientifically based and not be a campaigning group. It is not an NGO. It has to be very scientifically based. As I was saying, addressing land use is one of the things I would have done if I had been running it at that time - although, looking back, I cannot be sure I would have thought of it. Deputy Neville referred to "quick and easy". There is no quick and easy and, therefore, one has to get it started much earlier.

The other thing that might have been done differently would have been to start pressuring the UK Government earlier with regard to the need for electric vehicles, which will be important. I think we hit the ground a couple of years later than we might have done on that, thereby enabling the Government in the UK to set targets which are just not sensible. We cannot wait until 2040; we have to make the changes in 2030 because, otherwise, the figures do not add up. We have got to do this together. It is all part of the same market, so is very important for Ireland also. The motor car companies are behaving disgracefully. If people go out and try to buy an electric car today, they are put on a waiting list unless they can afford a Tesla. That is because the motor car companies are busy trying to sell the cars they can make cheaply now and they do not want people to buy electric cars. At the same time, they are telling a different story to governments. I think we have to be much tougher, as we have to be tough with the building companies. The house builders have got to be forced to build to a higher standard. Those are the things I would have started earlier.