3. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Clean Air Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 10 December 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:54, 10 December 2019

The Member's passion is very clear, as always. So, we're already bringing forward a broad range of actions. We've been implementing them and obviously we know we need to go further. This is a 12-week consultation. Nothing has been ruled out and, as I said to colleagues from the Welsh Conservatives, I'm very happy to listen to anybody's ideas to make sure that this plan brings about the improvement that we want to see in relation to air quality. You focused more or less on transport and I think you're very correct to do that. Active travel is clearly an area where we need to improve and we have improved. I mentioned in an earlier answer that the Minister for Economy and Transport and the Deputy Minister have put forward significant additional funding around active travel for this purpose. The transport strategy that the Minister will be bringing forward looks at specific modes of transport. It includes, obviously, buses, and there will be a public transport and buses Bill. We're looking at taxis. I know that in Cardiff they're looking to replace the current taxi fleet to have much lower carbon emissions.

Many of the actions are within the context of decarbonisation of transport, because we know that improving that air quality by reducing emissions is the right way and it will be a key pillar in the development of the transport strategy going forward. We need to encourage a shift from an over-reliance on cars. You're quite right. I couldn't possibly quote what you said, but certainly we need to be looking at walking, cycling and public transport, but that infrastructure has to be there for people to use it. In my earlier answer to Dai Rees I was saying that there's also an economic aspect to this because we go back to those areas of deprivation. We need to make sure that that public transport is affordable.