3. What proposals does the Senedd Commission have to make the Senedd estate carbon neutral? OQ56847

Thank you for that question. The Senedd Commission agreed its carbon neutral strategy in March 2021. This strategy details our commitment to becoming net carbon neutral by 2030. The strategy is available on our website. Within this strategy, we will detail the actions to take to reduce our carbon emissions, including on electricity consumption, heating, cooling, travel and cultural change. I’m pleased to be able to use this opportunity to tell Members that the Senedd is the first UK Parliament to publish a road map to a carbon-free operation. This strategy includes a mixture of behavioural change and efficiency savings to ensure our energy use is as low as possible before investment is required.

Thank you—Janet, I suppose. I believe that if any Government is to enforce a policy of decarbonisation of buildings, they should lead by example, and as you mentioned about the road map, they should also be pioneers in using innovative technology so they can in effect showcase the technology for other organisations. This point has recently been highlighted by the fact that the Department for Transport has received criticism for using diesel and petrol cars in their fleet whilst promoting conversion to electric vehicles for others. In many ways, I see that the Welsh Government should be at the forefront of innovation, particularly in decarbonisation of buildings. I acknowledge that this is a complex and often expensive undertaking, but what financial provisions does the Senedd Commission expect will be needed to make all Welsh Government buildings completely carbon neutral?

Thank you. Again, a really good question. Our strategy does include a mixture of behavioural change and efficiency savings, as I've mentioned. Whilst some offsetting is required at the end of this strategy to ensure, for example, that we can still travel across the country, we see this as a last resort, and we will seek to cut our current footprint by more than half by that point. I notice your reference to Welsh Government and its duty towards our carbon zero targets, but I can assure you, as the new Commissioner with this in my portfolio, climate change, that I will be pushing the Commission to ensure that we do cut our current footprint. The strategy follows two other successful strategies, which themselves have seen our energy footprint reduced by 60 per cent in a decade, even excluding the past pandemic year. Thank you.