1. What consideration does the Minister give to enabling the Welsh Government and local authorities to actively invest in energy generation and energy efficiency when allocating funding to the climate change portfolio? OQ57354

Our recently published Net Zero Wales plan sets out our targets relating to energy and energy efficiency. This plan was supported by an initial allocation of £200 million, and further measures will be set out in the draft budget, which will be published later this month.

Minister, I really welcome that initial response. There's no doubting the Welsh Government's ambitions on behalf of the people of Wales. But one of the interesting things, when we look at this aspect of taking a stake in energy generation and energy efficiency, is that very often you will see—and I would support this as a co-operative member—the idea of share models, where you could involve members of the public, but it tends to go to a certain type of member of the public, if you know what I mean. One of the biggest ways we can get involvement is by either Welsh Government or local authorities actually being that stakeholder on behalf of local people. Are there particular barriers that we can break down or are there ways in which we can make it easier and encourage local authorities to be an active party in energy-generation schemes particularly?

Yes, this is a really important issue and a particular area of interest, I know, for the local government decarbonisation strategy panel. That panel was set up in November 2020, and even with everything that was going on with the pandemic, they've still met more than 13 times now to explore ways in which to best support local government to undertake those decarbonisation initiatives that are so necessary. 

Welsh Government has given £0.5 million funding to the Welsh Local Government Association to develop a support programme for local authorities to enable them to maximise resources and avoid duplication and that's been an important part of ensuring that local authorities are working together on this important agenda.

Our policy on ownership of energy generation sets out how every effort should be made to maximise the benefit for the people of Wales when developing energy projects here in Wales, with opportunities for local ownership to be promoted. And I'm really pleased to say that we have initiated, funded and supported four regional energy strategies that will start to identify the scale of the change needed in order to reach a low-carbon energy system and those have absolutely been co-developed by regional partners, and local authorities are really important as part of that. 

At a local level, we are piloting local area energy planning in Conwy and Newport at the moment to identify the actions needed to decarbonise the local energy system, and I think all of this speaks to the important role that local authorities can and do play in this agenda.

Because of the target you set yourself, Minister, which you outlined at the beginning of your contribution, how are you working with the UK Government and local authorities to increase the take-up and educate on heat pumps in Wales, please? Thank you.

Well, I'm not sure that that's an issue for finance or local government questions, I'm afraid, Llywydd. But I will ask my colleague the Minister for Climate Change, perhaps, to write to Laura Anne Jones with those details, because those aren't conversations that I'm party to myself.