In particular, on the swift boxes, I am very pleased to say that we are incorporating them into our innovative housing programme. We have swift bricks going up across a number of social houses across Wales, and we are looking—and my colleague Lee Waters in particular is looking—at biodiversity along road routes and rail routes, including incorporating swift boxes and other nesting boxes as appropriate along those routes. So, those kinds of actions can make small but very important differences in the way that especially migratory birds are received in Wales. And I'm very delighted to have seen them; I've actually seen a swift in my own garden only very recently, which was a lovely sight. 

And of course we have acknowledged the escalating nature emergency and we, along with the rest of the world, absolutely acknowledge that we have not yet made enough progress towards the aim of reversing the decline in biodiversity. And of course the climate and nature emergencies are inextricably linked. You have one because you have the other. Climate change is one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss. Changes in temperature or rainfall can cause loss of habitats and species, reducing the resilience of the overall ecosystems. This isn't an either/or or a 'nice to have'; these things are absolutely inextricably linked. Biodiversity loss, particularly in areas like peatlands, can then reduce nature's ability to store carbon, exacerbating climate change in an escalating vicious circle. We need to intervene in that circle and reverse the change. 

This is not a small thing to say, and it's an even bigger thing to do. We all know that. But it's not a counsel of despair, either. There are still things that we can and should do, but these are not easy things and they are not straightforward things. And many of you here in the Chamber will have to have a long, hard look at your own particular priorities and the way that you're behaving, as well as the Welsh Government, because we will need to do this together and make those very difficult decisions. 

Reducing the direct pressures on nature from climate change as well as from pollution and unsustainable consumption is therefore an integral part of the action needed to stem biodiversity loss. As a Government, we are taking action to reduce these major pressures on our ecosystems. This will include improving water quality, reducing air pollution, decarbonisation and the circular economy. We're also continuing to invest significantly in our natural environment to restore and to create resilient ecological networks across Wales. These, of course, provide the many benefits that many Members in the debate today have mentioned, such as flood management, soil restoration, carbon sequestration and allowing species to move and, indeed, adapt to the change. 

Much of our current work now contributes to these nature networks. The Glastir Woodland Creation scheme and the national forest will support biodiversity through creating more mixed woodlands, enhancing and connecting existing woodlands as we go. And my colleague, again Lee Waters, has been doing a deep dive into tree planting in Wales, about how we can ensure that we plant more of the right trees in more of the right places as swiftly as possible in order to enhance our woodlands, enhance our carbon sequestration and, of course, create our national forest. 

The national peatland action programme will also improve peatland ecosystem resilience nationwide and contribute to climate change mitigation. We have an excellent project going on in north Gower, in my colleague Rebecca Evans's constituency, the Cwm Ivy scheme, in which we are helping to restore the salt marsh in north Gower to create approximately 39 hectares of salt marsh following an actual breach of the sea defences at Cwm Ivy. The new salt marsh, of course, will help provide the compensatory habitat that will be needed to offset the likely loss of salt marsh habitat in the future due to a combination of sea level rise due to climate change and the need for new coastal flood defences across Wales. And in this way, we need to have an integrated programme, both of flood defence for our communities but also mitigation for our species that require those inter-tidal areas to thrive and flourish. Salt marshes, of course, also contribute to carbon sequestration and a number of other ecosystem services. 

The reason I'm saying that, Deputy Presiding Officer, is because the economy and our ecology, our nature and our ecosystems are not in conflict. Many of the things that we want to do to mitigate climate change and to help with increased biodiversity restoration also help our economy, and those things can go hand in hand. I think it's essential that this Chamber does not see them as conflicting things, an either/or choice, but as an integrated whole, that we can work together to make sure that people have the jobs of the future that do not destroy our planet as they go.

We have a nature networks fund, with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to improve the condition, connectivity and resilience of Wales's marine and terrestrial protected site networks to enable them to function better at the heart of the nature networks—vital areas of ecological resilience in which habitats and species can thrive and expand. This absolutely has to be central to our future sustainable land management policy. We are committed to shifting financial support we provide for agriculture so we properly reward farmers for the environmental and social outcomes they deliver alongside the production of food. These services include, of course, clean water and air, carbon sequestration and creating and restoring valuable habitats on their land. 

We also recognise that an important part of tackling the nature and climate emergency is engaging and harnessing the power of individuals and local communities to take action, and Mabon and others highlighted very well what local communities can do when they come together in their local area. Our nature networks fund is also designed to create those networks of people that are engaged in those sites, and this is done through increasing and diversifying volunteer bases, supporting citizen science initiatives, and training schemes such as Kickstart. I thought Mabon's example was a very good one also. 

Our Local Places for Nature programme encourages everyone to engage with nature, to value nature and to create nature on their doorsteps. As Siân highlighted, the focus has to be on urban areas, particularly Wales's most disadvantaged communities and those with little access to nature, to ensure that every one of our younger generations, our future generations, is engaged in the natural environment. 

Investing in our natural environment contributes to our ambition, set out in the programme for government, to build a stronger green economy. This investment will support skills development and green jobs, as I've said. As a small country, our ambitions for tackling the nature emergency lie not only at the local level, but also on the global stage. We support the development of the convention on biological diversity post-2020 global biodiversity framework, enabling bold action to drive change to halt biodiversity loss. Our priorities include mainstreaming biodiversity consideration in all decision making, strengthening capacity and capability to implement nature-based solutions, and sharing best practice in Wales and internationally. We're actively engaged in the development of the post-2020 monitoring and indicator framework, working with DEFRA at state level. We anticipate a new global biodiversity framework with clear goals and targets following the convention in October. 

Through the Edinburgh process for sub-national governments we are signatories to the Edinburgh declaration, which calls for parties to the convention to take strong and bold actions to bring about transformative change. It also recognises the vital role of sub-national governments, cities and local authorities in delivering that vision. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, I could actually carry on talking for about 40 minutes about all of the things we're doing, but I can see that you're getting impatient about it. This is a very important subject, however, and I think the last thing I want to get across to people is that we absolutely do need to have an environmental governance body for Wales. We will be bringing forward legislation for that, and we will be looking at biodiversity targets, but we'll be looking at those in the context of both the global framework, the UK framework, and to make sure that we do not have the unintended consequences of setting targets in a particular area that mean other very important areas are lost. I will welcome working across party in this Chamber to make sure that we set the targets that drive the actions that are important. It's not the targets that drive the change, it's the actions. The targets are only a measure—the actions that we need to ensure that Wales plays its full role in tackling both the climate and nature emergencies on the world stage. Diolch.