I move the amendment, Deputy Presiding Officer. According to Public Health Wales, ambient air quality in the UK has, on the whole, improved steadily over recent decades, mainly as a result of a reduction in industrial emissions and better regulation and technological advances in clean vehicle fuels and more efficient engines. But it's a great tragedy, really, that against that generally improving air quality, we still have real problems, and much of the gains are offset by the increasing number of road vehicles, and they're often concentrated in particularly deprived areas, as Simon has just outlined. So, I do think we need to return to this and have a targeted approach, a very local approach, and to realise how integrated it is to some of the wider factors like deprivation—and also the heath issues, which I think are very prominent, and I won't repeat them, as Simon covered that. But just to say, as well as the appalling individual costs, the societal costs estimated by DEFRA are very considerable, amounting annually to something like £27.5 billion. Particulates alone are estimated at £16 billion a year, so we clearly need to take action here very forcefully.

Can I just say that the Conservative amendment, I think, is necessary? Just because point 3 of this motion, I think, is a little grudging and unco-operative in its aim. So, I'm trying to put that right, because we do need a co-ordinated effort across parties and across Government, which, in fairness to the Minister, the tone of her speech did reflect. We would very much welcome the substantive measures such as phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040. We should be encouraging a greater partnership with that, ensuring it's effectively enforced, and, possibly, as public opinion perhaps becomes more forceful as well and demanding, then we may even do a bit better than those targets. So, in general, I think that we need to be reflecting the work that has been done in a very pioneering way by the UK Government. I think it's the first to announce these targets, and I do think that that's the type of vision that we should be replicating over the areas under our control.

I welcome, in general, Plaid's amendments, apart from the final amendment, which we'll abstain on because of its self-congratulatory tone, which we don't want to be particularly—[Interruption.] I thought the other amendments were quite constructive; amendment 1 just reiterating those points around the public health aspects. I particularly thought amendment 4 was helpful, in terms of air quality management around schools. If you look at the exposure of children to severe air pollution and the effects that has, it really is quite concerning. I know that a recent freedom of information request submitted by the British Lung Foundation to local authorities found that 57 per cent of them were not monitoring air pollution within 10m of schools. Now, that's a UK-wide issue—I do accept that it's not just Wales. But I think that's a very clear indicator of what we should be doing, really, to ensure that we're driving up standards and particularly protecting the most vulnerable.

Before I conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, could I quickly speak about the role of towns and cities in these efforts? Wales's urban areas are at the front line of the fight to reduce emissions and to improve air quality. I have recognised this for a long time and called for more significant measures to address this. I am pleased that this is now much higher on the agenda. There was a Conservative minority debate on this very early in this Assembly, in the summer of 2016, because it had not been mentioned in the programme for government—air quality—and we were very concerned about that. So, we did raise the issue then. In fairness to the Welsh Government, they have devoted increasing attention to it, but I think some very pertinent points have already been made by Simon about the need to drive through targets now.

Five towns and cities in Wales—Port Talbot, Chepstow, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea—reported illegal and damaging levels of air pollution in 2016, and it's not difficult to see why and the sort of action that we do need to reduce that in terms of reduced car use and more active travel plans. The problem we have from vehicle emissions is an overriding issue, and these are responsible for about 70 per cent of airborne pollutants. I'm pleased to see a couple of statements of opinion on this, and I have put one down calling for the Welsh Government to pilot a clean air zone in Cardiff. I think that would really be useful. To date, the leading role for local authorities has been front and centre of air quality policy, but we must also recognise the need for national leadership. We've seen that from the UK Government. I think we need to see more now from Welsh Government, but they will have our co-operation when they do the right thing.

Whilst we've amended the motion, I'm sure that we will support whatever the Assembly adopts this afternoon in this important debate. Thank you.