8. Plaid Cymru Debate: Climate Change

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:24 pm on 1 May 2019.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 5:24, 1 May 2019

So, despite the declaration having been made, there is, of course, still purpose to today's debate. I understand, by the way, Llywydd, that members of the public are being denied access to the gallery to view this debate, so I am concerned at that, but maybe we can be told why that's the case at some point. Of course, we now have to make sure that we cannot end up seeing this as being some sort of headline-grabbing grandstanding from the Government. It really needs to mean real and immediate change and action to tackle climate change.

Many of us were a bit disturbed by the First Minister's statement yesterday, when he said that declaring a climate emergency doesn't really represent a sharp difference in policy for the Government. Surely, the whole point of declaring a climate emergency is that everything changes. I very nearly expect something more like a civil contingency response than a business-as-usual response from this Government. We only have to look at the environment Minister's statement issued yesterday and, again, I agree with her own backbencher, who described it as a wholly inadequate response. In essence, I think, it's establishing two new committees and giving the university of Cardiff a bit more money. Well, my question to the First Minister and to the Government today is whether you're really up for this challenge. Declaring a climate emergency can't just be a rebranding of existing policies. We've seen recently published, of course, the Government's 'low carbon Wales' paper, and the BBC highlighted quite clearly that the vast majority of pledges in that document already exist in different Government departments. This has to be a game changer, and business as usual is not an option.

The 'low carbon Wales' document that I mentioned—if you look at it closely, of course, a lot of the commitments start with, 'We will consult on', 'We will consider', 'We will start to explore' this, that and the other. Of course, the Government's narrative around climate change really has to fundamentally change, and the Government needs to move to action mode. So, prove to us today, Minister, that this Government, as I say, is up for the challenge. As a party, we've made it clear the kinds of initiatives that we would want to pursue in Government, from establishing a national energy company to help achieve our goal of Wales becoming self-sufficient in renewable energy, to the energy atlas, of course, the national inventory of green energy potentials so that we can start unlocking some of that potential in a way that brings benefits to our communities and our people, of course. The biggest home retrofitting programme that Wales has ever seen was outlined, our multibillion pound energy-efficiency programme, contributing to the triple bottom line of reducing emissions, creating jobs, tackling fuel poverty across Wales. I'm already running out of time, because I've been limited to four minutes, so I'll just say—[Interruption.] Yes, that's fine. Okay—