Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 10 March 2021.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 1:43, 10 March 2021

But that doesn't change the fact that renewable energy development in Wales is slowing down under Labour's watch. Declaring a climate emergency should mean a ramping up and an acceleration in the rate of development, but you haven't delivered that. Now, maybe we shouldn't be surprised, given that you cut support from the hydropower sector, for example, in Wales, leaving many of those schemes facing financial ruin, and your decision probably has zapped the confidence of others as well who were considering developing similar new energy schemes.

And that slowing down of renewable energy development in Wales under your watch isn't the only matter, of course, that you should regret. Plastic waste is another one. It's a scourge that we all want to see tackled with a huge ramping up of interventions to get to grips with the problem. I was elected to this Senedd in 2011 and, at that time, there was talk of action on a deposit-return scheme. Ten years and two Labour Governments later, we're still waiting for those interventions to materialise. Are you not embarrassed that we still don't have a deposit-return scheme in Wales?