Today, we do have cleaner air in Wales than in decades past, but as always, we know there is more for us to do. My aim is for us to be a leader in delivering innovative and effective solutions to tackle air pollution, achieving clean air for all. I'm therefore taking immediate action, through a comprehensive cross-Government programme of work, to improve air quality in Wales. This will include the development and publication of a clean air plan for Wales in 2018. The plan will include improvements to local authority reporting on air quality problems and their plans to deal with them, a clean air zone framework for Wales to ensure consistent and effective establishment of clean air zones by local authorities wherever they are needed, the establishment of a national air quality assessment and monitoring centre for Wales, and the delivery of ongoing cross-Government communications and interventions to raise public awareness of poor air quality.

The clean air zone framework will set out our principles for the operation of clean air zones in Wales and our expectations in terms of how they should be established and what they should deliver, with a clear focus on health outcomes. A clean air zone is an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality. They aim to reduce all types of air pollution, including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. The zones are area-specific, so what works in one city or place may not necessarily have the same impact or effectiveness elsewhere. As well as ensuring consistent and effective implementation, the framework will help to make sure that businesses and members of the public have a clear expectation of what a zone is and how they may be affected by one.

In addition, our development of improvements to local authority air quality reporting arrangements will free up their time to focus on the actions needed to deal with the problems they identify. My officials are currently engaging with key stakeholders to design and establish a national air quality assessment and monitoring centre. The centre will be a major step to securing the live information and evidence needed for timely, coherent and effective decision making on air quality matters at both the local and the national Government levels. This centre will provide a continuous focus on achieving compliance with legal limits and specific hotspots, whilst reducing exposure to pollution more widely, and will help target actions to achieve the greatest benefits in terms of public health and well-being.

My officials will also be working closely with colleagues from across the rest of Welsh Government to co-design and deliver sustained and well co-ordinated action to raise public awareness of air pollution and its effects on health. The aim will be to help citizens minimise their emissions and their own exposure to pollution. As part of this work, I can today announce the relaunch of our Air Quality in Wales website later this month. The reinvigorated site will contain improved air quality forecasting capability, new sections for schools and health advice. A new pollution route planner will shortly be added to the site to guide healthier travel across urban centres.

In July this year, in order to tackle air pollution, the UK Government committed to ending the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040. This is a necessary and positive step to achieving our ambitions, but 2040 remains a long way off, so I'd ask everyone in this place to join together in supporting and calling on the UK Government to develop, with our support and collaboration, clear timescales for a progressive transition to zero-emission road transport.

Today, I'd also like to draw attention to other work being done to achieve what we all want to see to take us forward to the ambitions of a clean air plan for cleaner air in Wales. Regulations have been laid in the Assembly requiring public service boards to take local authorities' air quality progress reports into account when putting together assessments of local well-being. This now paves the way for more collaborative work on air quality between public bodies. Work is under way with environmental health officers and local authorities to strengthen the air quality and soundscape provisions in 'Planning Policy Wales', and my department is making funding available for the single revenue grant for local authorities to support local action on air quality. In addition, our new national noise action plan, due next year, will further integrate noise and air quality policy in Wales.

We can be clear that it is not enough to develop a plan for air quality in a single silo. I want to see air quality embedded in policies on planning, infrastructure, transport, active travel and public health. We must tackle poor air quality from each and every angle, from national and local plans and transport measures to urban design and the well-planned planting of trees and hedgerows. We can, of course, look to strengthen legislative and regulatory measures, and I'm fully prepared to examine strong cases for doing so. A large part of the challenge we face with our air quality can be attributed to transport emissions, but certain types of energy generation and industrial processes, farming and other business practices, and some of the ways in which people heat their homes, are all contributing factors. These are all areas that need to be addressed by concerted and collective effort across Government and using all the tools at our disposal.

Air pollution very often originates in the same activities that are contributing to climate change. So, our efforts to tackle both must be fully integrated, and decarbonisation in respect of power generation and large-scale industries will therefore play a pivotal part in contributing to cleaner air in Wales. The onus is on all of us in Wales to take action and help to make real and lasting improvements to the quality of the air that we all breathe. With a real will and commitment to work together, we can realise these improvements and the opportunities they provide for a healthier, more prosperous and more equal Wales. I look forward to hearing Members' views this afternoon on where we are, where we should be going, and what more they would like to see on air quality during the remainder of this term. Diolch yn fawr.