3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 19 November 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:59, 19 November 2019

Thanks to Jack Sargeant, particularly for his opening remarks in terms of reminding us that, actually, this is an issue in which we can all play a part individually. Even if it's just something as simple as asking somebody if they're all right, and just being a listening ear and demonstrating to somebody that we care, that can make all the difference at the time when a person needs to hear that kind of thing.

On the point about New Zealand and the commitment that it's made in terms of playing its part in terms of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees and helping respond to what is a global climate emergency, we really welcome the work that New Zealand is doing. And I can confirm that Welsh Government officials and New Zealand officials do have good dialogue across a wide range of matters. I know this myself in terms of setting budgets within the context of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, for example. But Welsh Government has accepted the latest advice from our statutory advisers, which is the UK Committee on Climate Change, and that suggests that Wales can achieve a 95 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

The Minister with responsibility for environment and rural affairs has committed to that target and is putting it into legislation next year, following further advice on how our revised target would then affect our interim targets. I think that that's a really appropriate way for Wales to respond, but I think it's even more important to demonstrate a level of ambition, which the Minister has done in terms of asking the committee to go back and give us some further advice on how we might achieve net zero. So, I think it's important that we should be doing that looking to the future, but not lose sight of all the things we can do at the moment through our carbon delivery plan, which was published in March and contains sector-by-sector lists of things that we can all be doing right now.