I’m going to concentrate on renewables, but I firstly just wanted to pick up on something Simon Thomas said about the windfarms and then the mines being closed in Aberdare. He would be mindful to know, though, that there’s still opencast mining happening at Tower, and that’s something that I want to try and pull away from here in Wales, which is why I think focusing on renewables is so important to Wales.

In 2011, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that close to 80 per cent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid century if backed by the right enabling public policies, and, in doing so, could represent a cut of around a third in greenhouse gas emissions. So, it remains our aspiration to produce as much electricity as is consumed in Wales from renewables by 2035.

We all know that we do have such a big potential environmentally, economically and socially to reap the benefits of our natural resources. While I do support what is coming through in relation to having powers up to 350 MW, it’ll be no surprise for people here today to know that Plaid Cymru wants to see all of the powers over our natural resources devolved to this institution so that we can harness our powers and all of our potential. It was one of my gravest problems that water was reserved in the initial Government of Wales Act to Westminster, when water is a key natural resource for us and should be something that we can own and we can shape here in Wales.

I also don’t buy the argument that it isn’t possible for us here in Wales to change the landscape regardless of some of those powers not being within our grasp. The Fourth Assembly’s Environment and Sustainability Committee said in its report, ‘A Smarter Energy Future for Wales’, that it recommended setting up an umbrella not-for-profit energy service company, under which local authorities, city regions or communities can offer energy supply locally, and amending planning policy so that it prioritises local and community renewable energy projects. These are things that we have said time and again would help shape our own future here in Wales, which is why, as a Member who represents the Swansea valley, it’s great to see that there are developments there, such as Awel Aman Tawe, which are developing these smaller scale developments. But we have to see much more investment in this, because, as an idealist, I’d like to see a situation where we don’t have multinational corporations running our windfarms and taking profits away from Wales. I want to see a Wales in the future where we are running it as a nation. We need to look at countries like Denmark and other such countries in the Nordic—being vaguely obsessed with the Nordic countries for various reasons, I think we should look at what they’re doing on the environmental agenda. When you look at windfarms, they’re everywhere and it normalises how people see them and view them, and they have that very laid back approach to its development, whereas we always seem to have an issue with such developments.

Awel Aman Tawe have set up a solar PV co-operative, Egni, which develops solar PV energy on community buildings. I know that our councillors in Wrexham, for example, put efforts in place to put solar panels on all of their social housing—and I’m sure the Minister will know about that—so that, then, they not only could help those directly in those houses, but helped Wales and those social enterprises in that particular sector. It is also in the process of setting up a community windfarm consisting of two turbines in the upper Amman and Swansea valleys, and all profits from the scheme will go into the local regeneration process. They are trying to get this through, and despite local people supporting it, it still hasn’t gone through the planning stages. So, it’s all about working with community groups and schools to make sure that they understand the importance of renewable energy.

With the right infrastructure in place, including changes to the planning system, these schemes could be enabled much more so throughout Wales. I believe that there were 104 community energy schemes in Wales and there were much more—sorry to compare with Scotland again—but there were more than 11,940 individual renewable energy installations in Scotland. So, I’d like to know why we are falling behind Scotland when we’re able, surely, to be able to put much more investment into this area. Diolch yn fawr.