The Climate Emergency

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 7 December 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:14, 7 December 2021

I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for that really important point. There's no doubt, Llywydd, that climate change is already happening in Wales. Intense weather events and the frequency of them during the winter are going to be part of our lives much more than they were in the past. We've seen it already in communities here in south Wales. I made a visit with the then leader of Conwy council to a community that had been very badly affected by floods a year ago. I pay tribute to the work of local authorities, emergency services and, indeed, NRW workers who've been out this last weekend, and are out again today, in the high winds and the rain that we're seeing, working hard to try and protect communities from the impact of these extreme weather events. We will invest a record amount again this term, Llywydd, in flood and coastal defences right across Wales. Where emergencies hit, there are separate arrangements, of course, akin to the old Bellwin formula as it used to be known, that help local authorities where they have to pick up the immediate costs, as I remember Ceredigion County Council had when Aberystwyth front was badly damaged in high winds and sea swells. That is going to become a more permanent feature of the way things happen in Wales while we deal with the impact of climate change, and making sure that we have the arrangements fit to meet those circumstances is an important point that the Member's made this afternoon.