Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I think there's been a great deal of consensus in the Senedd this afternoon on the importance of renewable energy and how vital it is to make sure that this is rooted in our communities, both in terms of getting acceptance, but also in terms of realising the benefits beyond the broader benefits or helping us to reach net zero. We agree with the Member's position that we should ensure our communities feel the benefits of hosting these essential developments, and I've a lot of sympathy with the discomfort he expressed about large-scale solar farms, in particular, popping up across the country, not mentioning any in particular. I think we are better off focusing solar on buildings than we are taking up large bits of land.

This was a theme that came across in a number of Members' speeches; there's obviously a balance to be struck on the environmental impact. Janet Finch-Saunders, in her remarks, made reference to the ocean bed regeneration. That's an important point, as well as other examples given of where developments weren't quite a fit with their local communities. This, I think, is one of the delicate balances we have to strike. We know that, in order to reach net zero, we're going to have to make more cuts in our emissions in the next 10 years than we have over the last 30 years, and that pace and scale are going to have to quicken in the years beyond that. So, there's an imperative for us to act at scale, at pace, but we also need to bring communities with us and we need to be mindful of the other impacts of these developments. We're going to have to feel our way through that, frankly; there is no template for doing that sensitively.

I completely agree with the thrust of the debate about the ownership of renewable assets locally, and we must develop strong Welsh supply chains and job opportunities, as Samuel Kurtz just outlined. In terms of the specific project he mentioned of the floating wind in the Celtic sea waters, I know my colleague Julie James spoke at a UK ports conference this morning, and it is a project that we are looking at carefully. We want to develop as many different varieties of projects as we can, and, as I say, involving communities is key.

The most effective way of securing benefit is through local ownership, and our programme for government has a target to increase public and community-owned renewables by 100 MW by 2026. We recognise the need to have support in place to meet this ambition. The Welsh Government energy service is doing excellent work supporting public bodies and communities to develop schemes, and we are giving financial support to progress projects. To give one example, the energy service helped the Egni co-op to invest more than £4 million in rooftop solar across Wales, generating free power to community organisations and to schools, in fact, including shares in the co-op to some schools in the upper Amman valley, which I think is an excellent project I'm keen to see how we can spread more widely across Wales.

Despite the challenges of COVID, in the last financial year, we did support the installation of £35 million-worth of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, including 9 MW of renewable energy. By 2030, we have a target of 1 GW of renewable energy generation to be locally owned. Rhun ap Iorwerth mentioned two projects in north-west Wales that I visited recently, in fact, Ynni Ogwen and Menter Môn. Both have done excellent work with communities, capturing the benefits locally, as well as doing it in a way that is sensitive to the local environment. I think there's a lot we can all learn from their excellent work. We have set an expectation that all renewable energy projects should have at least an element of local ownership in them from now. Again, this is one of other dilemmas we face, because, clearly, in order to reach these targets, we want significant developments that can help us get towards our objectives. But that too often does mean large foreign-owned multinational companies having the wherewithal and the capital to come in and take these developments forward.

That is obviously something we want to encourage, and we've worked closely with that sector over recent years, but we know there are limits to what the private sector can do to support renewable energy generation in Wales and to bring communities with them, and to give the scale of the rewards from the schemes that they deserve. And there were a number of examples mentioned of how trivial the sums being offered to some communities are. And clearly that is not what we want to see. So, we are, through the Government energy service, working with communities and public bodies to explore ownership options, and we've been developing guidance with their input to assist with their negotiations. And we're beginning to see evidence of large developers taking positive steps to engage with our communities, but it's fair to say we're not where we need to be. Engagement is patchy and the approach is inconsistent. 

Tomorrow, Dirprwy Lywydd, I'm beginning another deep-dive exercise, this time into renewables in Wales, and I'll be exploring what more we can do to extract wealth from private development and support more community ownership and development in Wales. And we'll be exploring the possibility of establishing a publicly owned energy developer to accelerate the delivery of renewables that will bring a greater level of community and public benefit than the current models offer. We do, of course, need to work with private developers and, as has been mentioned, with the supply chain. There are opportunities here for green jobs and green skills, and we need to make sure we maximise those benefits. 

So, we're building a picture of the pipeline of projects coming forward and their supply chain and workforce needs, and we're working with our colleges to develop the skills of the future and supporting local businesses to supply into the new market. And also, crucially, we are pressing the Crown Estate and the UK Government to make local economic benefits a material consideration in the granting of sea-bed rights and contracts. And we're also looking at how we can use the Welsh Government woodland estate and other publicly owned land to offer immediate opportunities to develop projects that help their communities. 

So, I think there is a lot going on. I recognise Alun Davies's point about approaches being fragmented and a focus on strategies rather than delivery marring too much of Government's efforts across the world, and we need to make sure that, with setting up this portfolio, we are focused on action and delivery and pace, and I can pledge that we are doing what we can to do that. We can't move as fast as we want to do, that is one of the great frustrations of this role. These are incredibly complex projects, and the process of bringing all the different moving parts together can often be far slower than we'd like them to be. And that is the challenge for us all, because we know the science and the challenge is urgent, and we all have a responsibility to try to make sure that the pace of delivery matches that. But, I certainly would say to Alun Davies that I wouldn't mistake—