Reducing Carbon Emissions

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 21 September 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Natasha Asghar Natasha Asghar Conservative 1:30, 21 September 2022

Thank you so much, Deputy Minister. Apologies, I think I just got excited being back for the first day officially, or the second day. 

There's a growing awareness that our diet and food choices have a significant impact on our carbon footprint. Food transport, packaging and processing make up 6 per cent of carbon emissions from rich countries, so buying locally produced food means lower emissions. You recently announced two new schemes—a small grants woodland creation scheme, the woodland creation grant, with £32 million funding of funding for farmers and landowners to plant 86 million trees by the end of this decade. Now, concerns have been raised that encouraging tree planting could hinder our farmers' ability to produce food, so I'd like to ask, Deputy Minister, how these schemes will ensure that increasing tree cover, by increasing trees in Wales, will take place on land identified as less productive rather than on prime land, thereby sustaining local food production.