As the Minister will be well aware, blue carbon ecosystems have been identified as having enormous potential to store carbon, and exhibit carbon burial rates of up to 30 times higher than forests, which, incidentally, receive a disproportionate amount of attention for their capacity to store carbon. As we know, Wales has a very long coastline; it has more than 3 million hectares of blue carbon habitat, such as coastal salt marshes and seagrass beds. Expanding them and restoring sites once taken over by farms and industry could massively increase the amount of carbon stored and help meet our 2050 carbon target.

I have no doubt that the Minister will know about the seagrass pilot scheme in Dale, Pembrokeshire, where planting seagrass beds has been shown to have many benefits in addition to carbon storage, such as increasing biodiversity and helping to offer a natural and resilient infrastructure against storm surges. In your speech last week, you stated that there was a lot of money available for tree-planting projects in Wales. Today, you have mentioned your commitment to coastal habitat regeneration, and the First Minister also today mentioned the importance of investing in maritime technologies. With this in mind, and given the potential for seagrass to absorb so much more carbon than trees, can the Minister make a commitment to financially prioritising blue carbon ecosystems? Thank you.