4. Will the Minister make a statement on recent discussions held between the Welsh Government and a delegation from China? OAQ54128

Vice-Premier Hu's visit to Wales reaffirmed Wales and China’s long-standing relationship. Following the positive news on lifting market access for beef, it showcased Welsh agriculture, produce and innovation. The visit included a productive bilateral meeting with the First Minister to discuss opportunities for further collaboration across business, culture and education.  

I thank the Minister for that answer on the range of things that were discussed. I wonder if one of those items was the issue of climate change and how the two nations on a very different scale, with different degrees of complexity, can actually learn from each other and could show leadership. We know that China has been, in the recent decade, investing significantly in renewables, but it's also building itself a fleet of new coal-fired power stations at the same time. Meanwhile, of course, we have declared not only a climate change emergency but set our challenging zero-carbon targets. So, I wonder, was part of the discussions to do with climate change, not only on the challenges but the opportunities and how we may share experience and both show leadership on the world stage?

Indeed I did take the opportunity to speak to the vice-premier about this specific issue, because I do think that China is absolutely instrumental in terms of whether we are going to be able to tackle this issue and keep below the 2 degrees C that is absolutely crucial for all of us. We all know that there was a period where there were two coal-fired power stations being opened in China every single week and it's true that about 69 per cent of their energy is still produced by coal. The Minister was very clear that he understood this to be a very significant issue for his nation. When he was leading a region, he was instrumental, he was telling me, in changing the way that public transport was organised so that there was a shift to renewables. I think it is worth actually dwelling on the fact that, for every dollar that the United States spends on renewable energy, China spends three. So, it is by far the leading investor in renewable energy around the world. The impact on people, particularly in Beijing—he was telling me that the air quality in Beijing is so terrible now that this is something that they are taking extremely seriously.