Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. As Members will be aware, the Welsh Government’s Net Zero Wales plan was launched last week, 28 October, and I'd like to take this opportunity to provide an update on health and social care’s crucial role in contributing to the Welsh public sector’s collective ambition to reach net zero by 2030. We know that action is needed, not only because NHS Wales is the largest public sector emitter, contributing up to 40 per cent of public sector carbon emissions, but also because health and social care systems are at the forefront of responding to the impact of the climate emergency on health outcomes.

In response to this challenge, in March this year, the 'NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan' was published; a clear and ambitious mandate for action that sets out key commitments for delivery across our highest emission areas. Health and social care have a collective and critical leadership role in driving and embedding net zero across all that we do, and in bringing the communities of Wales with us because we all have our part to play. We know how tirelessly our health and social care sector have worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and that further winter pressures lie ahead. However, the climate emergency has not and will not go away and must be responded to with the same urgency that the pandemic has required of our sector.

The challenge has already been embraced across the health sector, and I have been really impressed by the dedication shown by groups of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and non-clinical staff across Wales who are already driving this agenda forward and developing their own green groups to help their healthcare settings to run more sustainably. The team at Ysbyty Gwynedd, for example, have initiated trials of reusable PPE; they've switched to less polluting anaesthetic gases and planted trees and wildflowers, acknowledging that reducing emissions and increasing green spaces not only helps prevent disease but has significant well-being benefits. The change of medical gas in just this one hospital has saved around the equivalent of driving 27,500 miles a month. Such work is not isolated, with excellent progress being made across our health sector. All-Wales data demonstrates that there's been a 67 per cent reduction in the carbon footprint of anaesthetic gases across Wales since June 2019, and the Welsh environmental anaesthesia network committee has aims now of reaching 80 per cent.

Further activity is also under way to strengthen Wales's approach to sustainable healthcare and to support decarbonisation in wider primary care. Our policy of prudent healthcare, with the aim of patients getting the right care in the right place at the right time, will reduce unnecessary multiple patient contacts and travel.

Our blended model of care, based around clinical triage, delivers appointments by telephone or video as well as face to face where clinically appropriate. This blended model is more convenient for patients; it helps prevent the risks of spread of disease and reduces unnecessary patient journeys. This has been made possible by investment in digital infrastructure and software, giving patients a choice of more appropriate and greener ways to access care and advice, and has already resulted in a reduction of over 7 million miles travelled and over 1.7 million kg of carbon emissions. That is is the equivalent of 289 journeys around the world.