Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 5 October 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:45, 5 October 2021

Well, the Member is very keen in wanting a one-example answer, so Pontarddulais is my answer to his second question. I was very pleased to be there at the opening of the Pontarddulais flood defence scheme, a scheme that will indeed do everything that he asked.

More generally, look, if we are sensible about these things, then he's right, there's far more that we have to do in order to tackle the climate emergency, and that means that there are some difficult decisions that we will all have to face. Building an M4 relief road, for example, would hardly have contributed to what this country has to do to tackle climate change. Last week, I was being asked by members of that party why we were investigating further actions that were needed to tackle nitrogen oxide concentrations along motorways. These things are all difficult. What you can't do is to say to the Government, 'You must do more of this,' but every time the Government tries to do something about it—nitrate vulnerable zones in the agriculture industry, for example—every time—[Interruption.] 'Shameful,' I hear the Member call. I've just been asked a question about climate change and pollution, and yet your party refuses to take action to deal with it. I'm simply making the point to the Member that the points he makes about needing to do more and to do it faster—I agree with him. What that means is there is a responsibility on every member of this Chamber that, when practical actions are taken, you can't try to say, 'Ah, but you can't do that.'