Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. When I opened this debate, I said the Welsh Government’s aim for an 80 per cent carbon footprint reduction was a laudable objective. But I believe there are far better ways of achieving this objective. In a previous debate, Huw Irranca-Davies talked of cutting energy use as part of the strategy to reduce our carbon footprint. I believe this is a much more sustainable and cost-effective way to achieve the Government’s goal.

If every house in Wales were fitted with a modern, highly efficient gas boiler, and if triple glazing were installed in every house and instead of a huge arrays of solar panels blighting our countryside, they were placed on every dwelling, the effect on our energy consumption would be dramatic. All this should be funded by Government for every householder, not just those who qualify under the benefit schemes.

The public sector could play a huge part in this reduction by installing solar panels on every public building, estimated, if we include schools, to be in their thousands. The far more efficient micro-hydro schemes should be encouraged. Every Welsh river and many of their contributories are capable of sustaining these installations with little or no damage to the environment. We should take inspiration from the past where, prior to the advent of electricity, water mills powered most of the industrial revolution. I’m sad to hear, earlier in another debate, that these developments are going to be subject to a huge hike in their costs.

I want to return to Manmoel to end my contribution to this debate. The efficacy of the entire development at Manmoel is seriously put into question when we have evidence that a planning application has been submitted to Caerphilly council for the installation of 32 diesel generators to act as back-up to the wind turbines when they fail to produce the required amount of electricity to supply the grid, or, if you prefer, as they described in their application, for the provision of a flexible generation facility to provide energy balancing services via the capacity market for the National Grid. Each generator measures 15 m by 2.5 m and stands 6 m high. These are no small diesel units. These are significant diesel engines. It is estimated that if they run for just 200 hours, as estimated, they will consume 1 million litres of diesel each and every year they are in operation. The irony of the use of these diesel generators is that they are less than a mile from the acknowledged worst polluted town outside London—that of Crumlin. I urge the Welsh Government to radically change its policy, not to climate change objectives, but the strategies it employs to achieve them.

I want to just take up the points made by Rhianon Passmore as to whether I am bandstanding here this afternoon. Well, the truth of the matter is that that is not what I’m doing—[Interruption.] That is not what I’m doing. The people of Manmoel approached me because they could get no other local representative to take any note of what they were saying. So, that’s exactly why I’m here today.

Simon Thomas seems to have missed the whole ethos of this debate—that there is no protection against the size or locality of such developments. And Huw Irranca’s point about the local community being able to make some difference to this is obviously and patently not the case with regard to Manmoel. David Melding said something about a return to the disfigurement of the countryside. Well, that’s exactly what I’m saying we should not do in this debate. So, again, I urge the Welsh Government to radically change its policy, not to climate change objectives, but the strategy it employs to achieve them.