6. Will the Minister make a statement on actions taken as a result of the Welsh Government's declaration of a climate emergency? OAQ54652

Thank you. We've accepted the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation to increase our 2050 target to 95 per cent. We've made a series of new investments across Government and arranged Wales's first climate change conference with 300 low-carbon leaders to see how all parts of society can respond collectively to the challenge.

Minister, thank you for that, but, according to recent opinion polls, 56 per cent of adults across the whole of the UK support the Labour Party's green new deal policy, which sets the objective of total decarbonisation by 2030. This Welsh Government has led the way by declaring a climate emergency. What more can Welsh Government do to assist the next Labour Government to achieve this objective?

I'm not sure if you were in the Chamber when I answered Andrew R.T. Davies's questions, but you will have heard me say that we moved to a 95 per cent target on the advice of the UK CCC. I have, however, asked them to see if, here in Wales, we can move to a net-zero target.

I'd be very interested to work with the next UK Labour Government after 12 December to see what advice they can give us also, and what we can do together. The UK CCC will be advising the new Government, and, certainly, obviously, as a UK, we have our climate change targets. Wales has to play its part. I'm very keen. We may only be a small country, but we've got really big ambition in relation to climate change mitigation.

I'm sure you'll enjoy working with the next Conservative Government as well in Westminster. [Interruption.] Touché Turtle. Thank you for your answer, and I think we all welcome the declaration of a climate emergency. But it strikes me—. I welcome the 95 per cent target as well, which you've set, but it strikes me that it's only really going to achieve its aim if it's mainstreamed across all departments, not just by yourself and your officials, and across public bodies, with some real behavioural changes at the end of those policy changes. And I think electric charging points, for instance, are one example of an area where—. Wales needs far more electric charging points than we've had in the past. But only last year an application for a new charging hub in Monmouth, in my constituency, was turned down due to it breaching technical advice note 15 rules, much to the dismay of local people. I wonder if you could see if Welsh Government policies, including the TANs and the planning polices, are revisited so that they can be more flexible when decisions are being taken that will actively promote the environment. I'm not saying they should be disregarded; in many cases, they're there for a reason. But I think if we are all trying to make sure that this climate change emergency really does work and we do solve the long-term environmental and climate problems that we've got, then we need to make sure that these policies are more flexible.

I think you raise a very important point about conflicting policies and about making sure we don't have those conflicting policies, particularly when it comes to our decarbonisation and climate change targets. Obviously, this is cross-Government. Climate change mitigation might sit within my portfolio, but every member of Cabinet and Welsh Government is thoroughly aware of their responsibilities too, and that's why we’ve got the sub-committee on decarbonisation, which many of my ministerial colleagues sit on. The First Minister's putting that onto a permanent footing.

And, again, after we declared the climate emergency at the beginning of the year, right across Government we can show how we've reallocated funding, for instance, where we've made investments—so, my colleagues Ken Skates and Lee Waters, £30 million into active travel; Vaughan Gething as the health Minister spent significant funding on the new ambulances having solar panels on them—so that we can address that climate emergency. And, again, right across Government, you will see a variety of proposals coming out to make sure that we focus on delivering 'A Low Carbon Wales', which is our plan that was launched by the First Minister back in March.