1. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's policies for protecting the environment? OAQ54004

Llywydd, the Welsh Government's most recent actions in environmental protection have focused on securing a statute book that prevents any deterioration in environmental standards, should the UK leave the European Union. Consent has been provided to 29 UK exit statutory instruments, with eight Welsh-specific environmental SIs made here in the National Assembly between October 2018 and June of this year.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I have recently received some very well-written letters, I have to say, from pupils in the Silverbirch class at Usk primary school in my constituency, who've been learning about global goals and, specifically, deforestation. The pupils wrote to me primarily because they're particularly concerned about the increasing demand for palm oil, which is used in food, cosmetics and so many other everyday items. Our demand for these products here in Wales is directly resulting in the destruction of tropical rainforests to make room for plantations, thereby destroying natural habitats for wildlife, including orangutans.

The pupils were hopeful that I would raise these issues with you as First Minister, which I am delivering on today. First Minister, would you say that these ethical and informed citizens from Usk primary schools are really talking about issues that should be affecting and are of concern to us all? And can you tell them what the Welsh Government is doing in the fightback against the demand for palm oil on the one hand and, in the wider sense, against the threat to forests across the world?

I thank Nick Ramsay for that question and congratulate those pupils at Usk primary school for writing to him. I'm very glad indeed that their concerns are being aired on the floor of the National Assembly. Concern for the environment is very much a generationally driven set of concerns. We know how much young people are invested in making sure that the planet that they will have to look after arrives in their stewardship in as good a state as we can make it.

I'm very glad that we have made unethically sourced palm oil something that cannot be used when we are striking economic contracts with firms here in Wales. The Member will know that the things that we are doing to secure reforestation here in Wales are part of that globally responsible effort to which he referred. We are committed to at least 2,000 hectares as a minimum of new woodland planting between 2020 and 2030. I am looking forward very much to the practical steps we will take to create a new national forest here in Wales.

Last week, my colleague Lesley Griffiths announced a series of investments in nature recovery schemes here in Wales, and the students at Usk primary school will be glad, I'm sure to know, that there is a £1.3 million scheme planned for A Resilient Greater Gwent, which will include looking at ways in which habitat has been degraded in the past and needs to be revived in the future. I suspect, at least, that the latest addition to the Ramsay household will, by now, have received his certificate telling him that trees have been planted here in Wales and in Uganda on his behalf—     

It's framed.

Framed—well, I'm very pleased to hear it. This is as part of 'A globally responsible Wales', to which we are committed as part of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

I came this afternoon from the cross-party group that I chair on sustainable energy, where we heard about possible funding sources in low-carbon energy infrastructure. We also heard about the Institute of Welsh Affairs's work on re-energising Wales. Now, that offers a route to decarbonising energy in Wales by 2035, and I do feel that there is consensus across the parties to take actions on the recommendations contained within that report. So, I would ask the Government to consider setting that as a foundation for the work that you're going to be doing, and that we're all going to be contributing to, over the next few years, hopefully, particularly in light of the written statement by the Minister for the environment this morning on the aim of being net zero carbon by 2050.

So, could I ask you to move in that direction? And if you will, then you will certainly receive support from these benches as well as, I'm sure, from other benches in this Senedd.

May I thank Llyr Gruffydd for his words? I agree, there is a consensus between some parties on the floor of this Assembly as regards what is facing us and that we will have to take the responsibility, as Lesley Griffiths said this morning in the written statement that she has published. I had the opportunity to speak when the IWA launched their report. There are very many interesting things in that report, many ideas that we want to collaborate on with the IWA and other partners throughout Wales who wish to be ambitious about what we here in Wales can do to safeguard our future.

I'm sure, First Minister, by your earlier comments, you would agree with me that trees play a significant role in our environment, not only for their aesthetic contribution to our countryside, but also for their carbon absorption qualities and the sustainable economic resource they represent. You mentioned earlier on as well the Welsh Government's commitment to replanting trees, but, unfortunately, it is regrettable that the Welsh Government is failing significantly in its tree planting targets—in fact, a shortfall in planting of 31,000 hectares since 2010, and a loss of 18,000 hectares of conifers since 2001. What is the Welsh Government doing to reverse this particularly devastating trend? 

Llywydd, I've acknowledged here on the floor of the Assembly in previous discussions with the leader of Plaid Cymru that we have not done as well as we needed to do in relation to tree planting here in Wales. That's why I set out the new commitments that we have made over the coming decade. It is partly why we are committed to the creation of a national forest as a legacy to future generations here in Wales, and it's because of what woodland does in terms of biodiversity, soil protection, water management, as well as all the other potentials that a national forest would provide, in the fields of tourism, employment, a response in the agriculture community to new conditions that they will face in the future. There is a constellation of very important reasons why we need to do more to plant trees here in Wales, and this Government is entirely seized of those arguments.