Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 13 June 2018.

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Photo of Hannah Blythyn Hannah Blythyn Labour 1:40, 13 June 2018

The Member is absolutely right that we need to take steps to not only halt the decline of biodiversity and reverse it, but also promote the value of our ecosystems, biodiversity and habitats to both communities and business alike. 

The economic contract and the calls to action provide a platform for us to make sure that we embed, as you say, the goals in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. I am particularly keen to explore potential—[Inaudible.]—already, like green procurement to place responsibilities on businesses to work with us in terms of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 as well. We will bring in Part 4 of the environment Act, which will place the same responsibilities on businesses to separate their waste for collection just as households have been doing for years.

But also, actually, how do we apply biodiversity goals? One thing is going around, working with local authorities in particular to work out how they've been doing it, but it comes back to actually these ongoing conversations with my Cabinet Secretary colleagues—not just the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, but across the piece—in terms of how we can apply that.

We've had conversations too with my colleague sat next to me, in terms of timber production within housing. So, showing the value of—. And particularly, for me, in terms of my portfolio—[Inaudible.]—the value of our circular economy not only to maintaining and restoring the sustainable management of our natural resources, but also in terms of the added value in terms of the job benefits that could bring to our economy in Wales.