Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:33 pm on 6 July 2021.
Well, these are exactly issues that I have had regular conversations with not just David Rees about in previous Senedd terms, but at the start of this one and indeed in my conversations with Community, who are the lead steel union on the Steel Council. There's a range of high-quality jobs at stake within the industry and that's why you need to think very seriously about what happens with the future for either carbon capture and storage or hydrogen technology as well. And here, the UK Government has a real opportunity to invest to make sure that there is a real future for those jobs, and that's the honest challenge.
So, a few years ago, it didn't look like there'd be the activism necessary from the UK Government for this to happen; there does now appear to have been a shift in priority and policy, which is welcome. But it's got to be seen through. So, the conversations that are taking place now need to see direct investment. And the work on the potential hydrogen technology in north-west England and north-east Wales is really welcome, but actually, given where the blast furnace is in Wales, when you see what does that mean for how technology can be deployed within the southern part of Wales and to have an understanding about how near that technology is for delivery, whether it's hydrogen or carbon capture, to make sure you decarbonise the way that steel is then produced.
So, that's the conversation that we're having and, in broad terms, there's nothing secret about that. The challenge though is how do we get there, and then the choices that the UK Government are prepared to make to make sure that investment happens, because this is an area where only they can choose to invest at the scale required to make sure that it happens. And in doing that, I think they'll find a steel industry that is ready and prepared to respond, and in a way that meets the way that the trade union side are understandably anxious to make sure that high-quality jobs are not lost in the transition. And that's where I'd want to be, and that's certainly the position of the Welsh Government, and it's well understood by people on all sides of the debate.