Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The historic absence of marine spatial planning and an isolated approach to managing our seas means that we now face unco-ordinated scrambles for space and increasing delays for industry. As we urgently need to move away from Russian hydrocarbons following Putin's illegal invasion, we must have the best legislation possible, which champions marine energy projects and greater energy security whilst keeping the nature and climate crisis at heart. This proposal would do just that.

So, why should this Parliament, the Welsh Parliament, legislate on marine planning? Well, the recent Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee report on the draft budget highlighted our finding that there is concern about barriers to renewable offshore energy generation in Wales, including a paucity in the marine environmental evidence base, and complexity that bring delays in the consenting and licensing process. There are widespread concerns about NRW's ability to effectively carry out its roles and responsibilities, including monitoring and assessing the condition of marine sites while supporting marine planning, and that whilst a review to streamline the consenting process is to be welcomed, there is still a severe lack of a robust evidence base to underpin development decisions, and there are consequently inherent risks in ramping up development. This is certainly what we do not want to be hearing at a time when the UK Government has rightly set an ambitious target to deliver 40 GW of offshore wind by 2030. There are approximately 4 GW of upcoming additional offshore wind developments in north Wales, and the Crown Estate is pursuing plans for floating wind in the Celtic sea. The Welsh Government has already failed to meet the deadline to achieve or even maintain good environmental status, GES, of marine waters. Marine biodiversity is declining. In fact, according to the second 'State of Natural Resources Report', only 46 per cent of the marine protected area network features are in favourable condition. The lack of true spatial planning to guide the sustainable use of our seas hinders GES and threatens the upscaling of offshore wind. 

Whilst I acknowledge the commitment in the renewable energy deep dive, and I thank the Deputy Minister for doing this, to work with NRW and key stakeholders to identify marine strategic resource areas by 2023, this was to provide guidance to signpost appropriate and inappropriate areas for development. But that is only guidance. We now need to create a legal duty to create a national marine development plan, one that is relevant to Wales, and to keep it under regular review. As the RSPB have stated, the lack of robust statutory weighted development control and spatial policies to steer developments away from environmentally sensitive areas from the outset does create uncertainty for all parties, and inevitably leads to conflict at the application stage. 

Baroness Brown of Cambridge endorsed spatial planning, stating:

'I think sea bed planning in order to make sure that we can enable these activities to coexist without...urbanising the sea bed, is hugely important.'

Many Members work with the Marine Conservation Society, and they have stated that they are wary of a piecemeal approach that, when coupled with a significant ramping up of development proposals, is a recipe for unforeseen, cumulative and in-combination impacts. Strategic resource areas need to sit firmly within a holistic marine spatial plan, as is highlighted in the report on the Welsh Government's own marine policies. Environmental stakeholders called for a cross-sector statutory spatial plan that addresses the cumulative impacts of marine development. So, let's ask ourselves: how can it be right that, whilst planning on land has 'Future Wales', 'Planning Policy Wales' and local development plans to guide development, at present, there is no similar system for what happens in our seas—and, I would just add, the great expanse of our seas? This is despite Welsh territorial seas covering some 32,000 sq km.