4. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: COP26

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:11 pm on 16 November 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 4:11, 16 November 2021

Yes, and thank you for the question. And I was very pleased, when I was in COP, to take part in panel discussions with the Climate Cymru youth ambassadors, along with the Scottish youth ambassadors and the Minister from the Scottish Government. And what was palpable about it was the outrage of young people of the legacy that their generation is going to be left, and when you look at the statistics and the data that's coming out, the impact of this is profound, but it's also upon us before we know it. You know, within 80 years—and I hope my children will still be alive—unless we dramatically change policies around the world, we face four degrees of global warming, which will wipe out some 70 per cent of the ecosystems required to sustain human life. Now, that is profound and disturbing and justifies outrage, frankly. So, I was pleased by the suggestions you quoted from the young people in your area, and I think we can learn a lot from that. Recycling more, turning off the water tap, labelling palm oil and eating less meat are all simple actions that we can all do that, collectively, will make a difference.

What the Climate Change Committee evidence suggests is that 60 per cent of the actions required to meet net zero are actions individuals can take; 40 per cent of actions that Governments need to take, and those two things need to happen in parallel. We do need people power, but we also need systemic change. And, as I've said all along, to do this, we need to make the right thing to do for the climate the easiest thing to do. And that's something Government's responsible for, and that's something we as a Welsh Government—and again, we have responsibility for something like 40 per cent of the emissions cuts that need to happen; the UK Government has responsibility for 60 per cent. We need to work with them to make sure that systemic change makes it easy for citizens to make the choices we all rely on them to make to stop catastrophic climate change becoming a reality.