Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 12:58 pm on 16 June 2021.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 12:58, 16 June 2021

Thank you for that, Delyth, and it's nice to be working with you again as well.

We see it as another part of the climate emergency. The nature emergency is being driven by changes in the climate, the reduction of habitat, and all the rest of it that goes alongside the climate emergency. So, I don't think there's any disagreement with us that we're in that kind of emergency. We have shocking species loss and loss of habitat across the planet, and indeed in Wales, and we clearly need to not only protect what we have left, but also to enhance what we have left, and try to assist it to recover. That will be very much part of what we're trying to do as part of the new portfolio, and my colleague Lee Waters is going to be doing a statement later on today setting out some of the first things that we're going to do. Llywydd, we're very much trying to do it between us, because this is an enormous piece of work, and the two of us will be sharing a lot of it, so you may find us covering bits of it, both of us, and so on, because, Delyth, of the extreme nature of what you've just set out.

So, at the moment we're waiting on some advice that will come from the world organisations on this, so we're hoping that they will report back to us in October with global targets. We're going to take part in COP26 to get some learning from that, and then I'm very happy to bring to the Senedd a range of proposals to put in place, so that you can, if you like, hold our feet to the fire to make sure that we do it, but actually more importantly, to tell the story to the people of Wales as to what each one of us will have to contribute to, both personally and in our communities, to make sure that we follow the science. So, we've got used to that during COVID, haven't we? We've got used to a set of scientists coming together and setting out for us a set of parameters that allow policy makers to make some choices. So, we're very much seeing that in climate change and the nature emergency alongside it. We will be bringing a set of choices to you that allow us to come together as a Senedd, because I think this is a shared agenda, very much, across Wales. 

But, Llywydd, I'm now stealing the thunder of my colleague Minister, so I'll stop there.