Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:51 pm on 15 June 2022.
Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you to everyone who's contributed to this debate this afternoon. I thank the Minister for her response. I won't speak for too long, I think that the excitement is there and is shared across the benches here in terms of the scope to develop a new sector here and to be at the forefront.
We heard the Minister listing all of those elements of hydrogen developments already happening in Wales, as I did, and as we heard from other Members too. What that tells us is that the foundations are in place so that we can build a sector that truly can make a difference to the Welsh economy as a whole. All of the elements are to be welcomed, they are all small building blocks that, hopefully, will enable us to build upon them.
But that's the aim now, to see what the potential is, and to aim high, because that's exactly what we see happening in other nations. The Minister said that the Government and the Labour benches will support this motion today, and I'm grateful for that. She is supportive because she says that the pathway is a strategy. I note the terms that she used in terms of having a strategic approach and a strategic focus, but I still think we need to bring all of this together and have a clear aim. I remember looking at a report from the Irish Government, 'Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth', and I saw that as a pattern that Wales could adopt. There was a strategy as to how we could make the most of our marine environment. I see here too that we need that kind of focus in a single, clear strategy where everyone knows what the direction of travel is.
But as I said, I have heard that excitement across the benches here today. This won't be the last time that I raise the issue of hydrogen here in the Senedd, but at least we've had a flavour of it once again, and it's on the record here in terms of the potential and what we could be aiming for, because with green hydrogen specifically, this is the future that we could be getting excited about as a the nation. Thank you.