7. Debate on Petition P-05-869: Declare a Climate Emergency and fit all policies with zero-carbon targets

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 19 June 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 5:36, 19 June 2019

I agree with Neil McEvoy that we have got to change the way we do things. Clearly, we do need to introduce electric trams and buses. I absolutely agree that we need to highlight the need to change planning policy, so that we're not building housing developments in areas where there is insufficient public transport to enable people to get around, but I would invite Councillor McEvoy to focus on ensuring that the local authority where he represents his local community has got that in mind too. Because it isn't just in the area that he represents that there's been houses being put up in areas where the transport system is simply inadequate to cope with it.

What we do need is a transformative policy to ensure that we have a metro system that ensures that development takes place around the metro hubs and spokes. Because we absolutely cannot afford to have more carbon emissions from vehicles and we have to plan differently to step up to the plate on climate change. Because we have to remember that the UN inter-governmental panel on climate change warns us that we've only got 12 years to save the world. That's a pretty scary concept. So, I very much welcome the Welsh Government's declaration of a climate emergency, but we need to follow that up with actions to deliver on that.

We were reminded yesterday by Darren Millar about 30 years since the Towyn flood, and I'm afraid to say that that sort of event is going to become more common unless we change our ways. We have to bear in mind that we are only in control over what goes on in the United Kingdom. We cannot do anything about what goes on in other countries, other than joining in with international organisations and urging them to meet their obligations under the Paris agreement. 

But, going back to what we can affect, I think that Mark Reckless is absolutely right to ask the question, 'Can we really afford to rip out gas boilers and have ground-source and air-source heat pumps instead?' And the answer is, 'Absolutely.' We must be able to, because the more people who use ground-source and air-source heat pumps, the reduction in the price will go with it. We have to have a green new deal to address this problem, and that involves really transforming the way we do things.

We've got to have the electric trams and buses that Neil McEvoy talked about. How will we pay for them? Well, at the moment, we need to pay for them from taxing people who do the wrong thing. At the moment, we have a UK Government that is resistant to maintaining the escalator on the energy price that we're charged at the petrol pumps. We should be making car transport more expensive relative to public transport. I'd personally like to see public transport provided for free because I think that is a necessary measure, in line with what David Attenborough and the UN experts are warning us. We have to have active travel routes to all our schools so that all our children will be able to either walk or cycle, because that has to be the main mode of transport for children who live within a reasonable distance of where they're going to school.

So, I think that it does require a transformation in the way we plan services, in the way we retrofit all our housing. Wales has more antiquated housing than other parts of the United Kingdom and, in addition to that, we are continuing to allow the mass house builders to build houses that are not energy efficient, and are going to need to be retrofitted. So, we need to put a stop to that and change Part L of the planning policy. It absolutely fits in with the green new deal that we absolutely have to have.

I don't think any of us have a glass bowl to see what are the changes that are going to be necessary, but we all need to put our heads together to work out what we have to do, and we have to have radical change. I'm proud to be sponsoring—