Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:22 pm on 3 November 2021.
I suppose I want to start my contribution through airing my own frustrations with how we talk about the climate emergency and the green economy. I have to say, we've had countless debates on the environment and green economy in this Senedd term alone, and I don't even think—God knows how many debates there have been globally on the environment, and I really do hope COP delivers. But I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the suggestion made by Gareth Davies in his contribution that we can tinker around the edges, that we don't have to make these massive lifestyle changes. We've been tinkering around the edges for decades, and nothing has changed. The reality is that we need systemic change, because I find it hard to see how the current system we live in can cope with the task ahead. Society as it stands, for example, puts the individual rather than the collective on a pedestal. We see that with how we idolise billionaires, how, during COP, people have swooned at the thought that these billionaires are putting their hands in their pockets and throwing us a few billion. Now, I'm trying not to be flippant here, because it's definitely £1 billion more than I will ever be able to contribute myself, but, for some of the world's most wealthy people, a couple of billion is a drop in the ocean, especially when some of these billionaires have the equivalent wealth of some eastern European countries. At what point—? And this is a serious question. At what point, when we face a—