Julie James: Thank you very much for that. Of course, my colleague Lesley Griffiths and I have been working very, very closely together, as have all our officials, on this. We can't do this without our farmers—that's the truth of it—without our landowners, so of course they're absolutely pivotal. We work with the farming unions and with groups of other farmers. I had farmers on my biodiversity deep...
Julie James: Thank you, Mike. As I said before, we've been working with Ofwat to make sure that, in the next price review for water companies, both the ability and the need to invest in stopping sewage outflows into rivers, particularly the combined sewage outflows, is very necessary and that a programme of investment can be put forward. It's very important to us that the price mechanism is put in place...
Julie James: Oh, you are there. Sorry, Mike. Right behind me, Mike. We have a Tawe flood defence, which is a natural solution there. The Tawe floods out into what would have been part of its natural flood plain. It's a reed bed. It has the most incredible biodiversity that's come back to that part of Swansea, and it has prevented the Tawe from flooding along its length for a very long time. It's...
Julie James: Diolch, Delyth. In terms of the increased rainfall—. Well, it's not just the increased rainfall, actually. One of the biggest issues we have is hot, dry summers followed by extreme rainfall events. We still are in drought in most of Wales. We still haven't got our reservoirs up to where they should be, despite the rain that we've been having recently, because it's intermittent. A lot of it...
Julie James: Well, thanks, Janet. I mean, you know, once again, I’m afraid that I have to point out the contradiction in what you are saying. You don’t want pollution. You don’t want the agricultural pollution regulations. The idea that no agriculture in Wales causes pollution, that it’s all down to the water companies and the house builders is obviously nonsense. Of course, what we want is...
Julie James: Over the next 20 years, Wales faces wetter winters, hotter, drier summers, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. The need to achieve decarbonisation, climate resilience, reverse the decline in biodiversity and improve our water quality will require innovative solutions, behaviour change, and long-term investment in our water infrastructure. The onus is on...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. Water is one of our greatest natural assets and an integral part of Wales’s culture, heritage and national identity. However, our water sector is facing immediate and unprecedented challenges.
Julie James: I might need a little bit more than a bit more. The sustainable farming scheme proposals contain a raft of actions designed to support farmers in the ongoing sustainable production of food alongside addressing the climate and nature emergencies. Sustainable farming is indeed the key to our future. We already have world-leading standards of sustainability within our red meat sector through our...
Julie James: Thank you. I completely agree. I will not have time to go through all of the detail of that, but pockets of innovation do show what is possible for wholesalers and civil society organisations working with local producers and growers to help develop fresh, healthy dishes for schools.
Julie James: I did not, sorry. Go ahead.
Julie James: Yes, absolutely, Andrew. I will not have time to go through every single policy that's been mentioned in a very broad motion, but I completely accept the point. One of the big issues for us is to make sure that we extract all of the value from our food supply chain, and in doing so, we help the processors to come to Wales and make use of that product. But apologies—the Deputy Presiding...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to thank Plaid Cymru for raising this debate today, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to it. The Government will be supporting the motion. I would argue that as a globally responsible nation, we, in fact, go quite a bit further than the motion. We clearly support the ambitions reflected in the motion, but the real challenge is in practical...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I commend these Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2022 to the Senedd and ask Members to support them so we can implement the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 in December. [Interruption.] Perhaps if you ever listen to anything I said, Janet, you would understand—
Julie James: Sorry, Llywydd, I beg your pardon.
Julie James: As I was saying, Janet, perhaps if you ever listen to anything I said, as opposed to reading out your pre-ordained speech, you would know that voting against these regulations will not stop the implementation of the Act—it will simply mean that the Act doesn't work as intended. So, that's an idiocy, quite frankly. If you were successful in stopping these regulations going through, you'd not...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. These regulations are part of the final set of statutory instruments I am laying as we move towards implementation of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 on 1 December. The statutory instruments, including the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2022 that we are voting on today, are essential to the operation of the 2016 Act. As I have...
Julie James: I agree with that, Alun, and so we will be bringing forward the infrastructure consenting Bill in this Assembly year—so, before the end of the summer term—to make sure that we streamline the consenting for big projects and make a very distinct distinction between the planning sets for those. We've been doing a series of training rounds with all of the planning authorities in Wales about...
Julie James: On that last one, exactly that, Mike. So, that's one of the reasons that we're looking with caution at the development of carbon capture, utilisation and storage. The technology clearly works at small scale, but as yet there's no big scale, and the storage issues that are being looked at in the HyNet project in the north will be very, very important—so, all of the issues about containment...
Julie James: So, yes, that's very interesting. I am aware of it, and it's a very interesting development. We are very keen. The scheme referenced by our colleague, Mike Hedges, is a very similar sort of scheme, so we're very keen to understand how we might lever in finance in order to assist communities to come together to do exactly that, and then to share the energy out. So, in that scheme in particular...
Julie James: I'm very happy to reassure you that we are, of course, doing that. Very recently, the Minister for Economy and myself met with Valero to discuss exactly that. We are just waiting on the next interministerial group with the UK Government to discuss the next iteration. We're somewhat hamstrung by the Northern Ireland situation. So we went out to consultation on the trading scheme, as I'm sure...
