2. Will the Minister make a statement on the status of the environmental impact assessment made of the Barry incinerator, given that testing at the plant has already commenced? 370

The written statement of May 2019 announced our intention to consult on an environmental statement that the developer of the plant was offering to prepare in relation to planning permission 2015/00031/OUT. That environmental statement has since been received and we have procured an independent consultant, WSP, to assist and undertake an analysis of the information submitted on behalf of the developer. I will undertake the public consultation described in the statement.

Thank you, Minister, for that answer, and I'm grateful for the organiser's update in the business statement yesterday over this evidence coming before the Welsh Government. Can you give us an assurance on two fronts, please? One, that the evidence that has been provided by the developer is of the quality that an environmental impact assessment would have had to have been at. And secondly, that no commercial operations will begin at the incinerator until the Welsh Government has formed its opinion, based on the evidence that the developer has given you.

I thank the Member. I know that the Member has a longstanding ongoing interest in this area. Clearly, the information that the developer will bring in terms of the environmental statement is in line with what we would expect. Clearly, this will be analysed by the independent consultant to look at any gaps and anything that we need to take forward, and we will consider everything carefully and with due diligence as the Member would anticipate and expect.

There is, of course, a wider question here, isn't there? Because we always hear these warm words from the Welsh Government about the need for a clean air Act, but you allow a technology that sees incinerators release various air pollutants, including nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, lead, mercury, dioxins, et cetera, et cetera. You introduce the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015, with its emphasis on the preventative approach, yet you allow a technology that can have serious public health effects, including increased cancer risk through to respiratory illnesses, cardiac disease, reproductive, developmental and neurological problems. You declare a climate emergency as well, of course, yet the Barry incinerator, as we know, will add over 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, breaching the first, the third, the fourth and the seventh well-being goals, stemming, of course, from the well-being of future generations Act. 

So, is it not time, now, for a moratorium on such incinerators, or, at least, a moratorium until you address some of the underlying issues around waste that your proposed new zero-waste strategy should deal with, when we see it? But, if you are intent on pursuing support for this kind of technology, then should we not at the very least be banning incinerators from being built anywhere near schools, hospitals, residential areas and the like?

The Member does raise a wider debate in terms of actually how we deal effectively with our non-recyclable waste as a responsible nation. I know the Member agrees with me that we have a duty, as a responsible nation, to prevent it both from polluting the environment or seeing that problem exported to other countries. That's the reason why we have invested in infrastructure to extract electricity and heat from this material and to dispose of it safely and to the highest environmental standards.

However, I think it's important that we recognise that the incineration of waste for heat and power should, indeed, be a transitionary step. The long-term solution is to move away from single-use plastic and the use of fossil fuels, and that we move to ban some of those single-use plastic products, but also taking steps to ensure that responsibility for end-of-life costs of materials is placed more on the producer, and in line with the producer-pays principle. 

The Member refers to the upcoming new zero-waste strategy, which actually aims to not just focus on waste, but a circular economy and a move beyond where we have been before. An element of that is to look at actually what we do, and have responsibility for our own waste, and I would invite the Member to be part of that conversation in terms of actually how we deal with our waste that we cannot recycle at present but that we want to reduce in the future.

This is a very simple question: will you bring forward legislation to prevent incinerators like the one in Barry, like the one proposed in Trowbridge, like the one proposed in Usk—will you bring forward legislation to prevent such incinerators being able to be opened in Wales? It's a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, really.

It's not. Deputy Presiding Officer, I'll refer the Member to my previous response to Llyr Gruffydd—that this is a wider debate to be had, and one that we need to have, going forward, when we discuss our future waste strategy.

Thank you.