Thank you, acting Presiding Officer.

We have spent a great deal of time in this Chamber talking about the cost-of-living crisis, which is directly related to the major increase in the cost of energy. Keeping British people locked into the price of fossil fuels is bad for bill payers and disastrous for the action that we all know we need to take to tackle the climate emergency. The rising costs and lack of certainty of supply both strengthen the case for energy resilience and the need for control over our energy system. Our Government has championed the need for greater energy efficiency and more renewable energy, along with flexibility measures to make sure that we can always meet demand. These are the right long-term solutions to deliver on the current cost-of-living crisis and on the climate and nature crises. This much more local system requires us to be much more engaged with the energy system than previously. Government at all levels will need to take an active role in designing the net-zero energy system, one that enables people to live and move, yet has the lowest possible costs and impacts.

I have been really pleased with the way that local authorities and regions have worked with us on energy plans that set out the changes that need to happen, and how those changes can deliver skilled jobs for people in their areas. Following the successful pilots in Conwy and Newport, I look forward to seeing the rest of our authorities developing detailed local energy plans, which will be the basis for the national energy plan in 2024. These plans don’t solve our immediate energy cost problems, but they do set a strong framework for us to collectively focus our action to protect ourselves in the medium term. In delivering these plans, we must think differently as a nation about how we manage public assets. We will only deliver net-zero obligations in ways that benefit communities by taking new and different approaches.

We have already used the major public asset that is the Welsh Government woodland estate to deliver on our policy on renewables and local benefit. Natural Resources Wales has overseen the installation of four projects totalling 441 MW of onshore wind, with a further 134 MW still in development. This has delivered not just income to the public purse from lease payments and direct to communities from community benefit funds, but opportunities for communities to take ownership of part of these developments. The projects have also funded improvements in natural capital, such as restoring and expanding areas where peat was in danger of releasing greenhouse gases.

It has been interesting to note that the companies winning lease competitions—those most prepared to deliver local benefits—are state-owned developers. We share the ambitions of these other nations, and we are determined to maximise the value that Wales receives from Welsh national assets used to generate energy. For the last two years, we have been working with NRW to assess the level of wind generation the woodland estate can support and to consider how to make sure that Wales keeps more of the benefits in a changing market. Public land presents a great opportunity, however, it is only fair to take a larger share in the risks if we wish to take more of the rewards for Wales.

So, acting Presiding Officer, I am absolutely delighted to announce, as I set out in Net Zero Wales last year, that we are going to establish a Welsh state developer. We will take more risks where these are reasonable, and will earn the returns to benefit Welsh citizens. We will take forward projects on Welsh Government land and develop them commercially, whilst respecting the views of people and managing our natural resources sustainably. We will be delivering directly on our aims to have over a gigawatt of locally owned generation by 2030, and our manifesto commitment to at least an additional 100 MW of generation by 2026.

This is a long-term approach, and we do not expect to see returns until towards the end of the decade. However, I expect significant returns compared to our investment. The income will help us support communities—as indeed we have already seen communities benefit during COVID and now the cost-of-living crisis—from the community funds from existing windfarms. But I am particularly keen to explore how we can link these developments with retrofitting homes nearby, using local businesses. This will involve working in a different way with the private sector. I hope that that sector will welcome another publicly owned member, working on an equal footing and returning profits to the public purse. We will be working with NRW to consider how, in future, we can offer up opportunities across the woodland estate that complement our own developments, opportunities for commercial and community developers to propose joint ventures with us.

We also hope that our approach will help reshape the market elsewhere in Wales. Our deepening understanding of the economies of large-scale developments will help us set expectations about the level of local social and environmental benefit that it is reasonable to expect of other windfarms across Wales. We have a lot more work to do to set up a new company by April 2024. Alongside setting up the developer, we will develop a portfolio of projects, engaging at an early stage with communities and local authorities. We will also be looking in detail at the benefits that this approach will deliver. We will work with those who live near projects to define community benefit proposals that really make a difference to their lives. We will also work with Natural Resources Wales to make sure that those projects contribute to tackling both the climate and the nature emergencies.

I'll keep the Siambr informed on progress as we work through the establishment of the developer. I hope that you will all welcome this announcement, as Wales becomes the first home nation to have a publicly owned Welsh renewables developer. Diolch.