5. Will the First Minister make a statement on what action the Welsh Government is taking in south Wales to tackle climate change? OAQ54956

Llywydd, we are tackling climate change by reducing emissions and building resilience. In south Wales, we are investing in public transport, low-carbon buildings, decarbonising our energy system, improving biodiversity, and building resilience to the impacts of climate change in areas such as flood prevention and natural resource management.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I'd like to return you briefly to the issue of road congestion and the impact on climate change. I very much welcome the consideration that's now being given to the issue of congestion and pollution from traffic into Cardiff. Of course, that traffic doesn't miraculously appear in Cardiff, it goes through constituencies such as mine into Cardiff, and that congestion and pollution is felt all through quite a large number of our constituencies. But, in particular, the solution to congestion and pollution is not just in Cardiff, it lies much further through.

In order to win the support, I think, of the many people in the Pontypridd constituency and further afield, it seems to me that consideration of the whole issue of congestion charging is dependent on a number of principled assurances I think people want. The first one is that the costs do not disproportionately fall on the poorest communities. The second one is that a proportion of the proceeds are redistributed and invested within our broader transport system. And that, thirdly, there is an affordable public transport alternative available, First Minister.

I thank Mick Antoniw for those additional points on this matter. Of course, he is right that traffic that flows through his constituency and very often from his constituency into mine and then onwards into Cardiff is generated elsewhere. I just want to recognise what Mick Antoniw said about the need for this to be tackled. The idea that you can simply ignore it and look the other way is simply not an answer to what we face. But the answer that we design has to have the sorts of characteristics that he mentioned.

I said in the answer to my previous question, for those who were here to hear it, that the Minister's letter puts fairness at the heart of the Welsh Government's response to it, and that redistribution of any sums raised, so that they benefit areas outside Cardiff, is integral to any plan as well. And of course, affordable public transport of the sort that I know the Member has particularly campaigned for, for the reopening of former railway lines that would serve his constituency and provide that sort of affordable public transport, has to be integral to the plan as well. And it is why, in the answer that I provided to Mark Reckless, I read that part of the Minister's letter to Cardiff Council that places all of those things in that wider context.