3. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Climate Change — Final Statement for Carbon Budget 1

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 6 December 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:18, 6 December 2022

Thank you very much, Jenny. One of the things you'll see when we publish the plan by the end of this week is a very useful infographic, which, Deputy Llywydd, I happen to have a rush copy of in front of me. What that does is go through some of the statistics I was responding to Janet Finch-Saunders using. It sets out very neatly which indicators are red and amber and why, and what we need to do about them. One of those is obviously agriculture and food. You'll be able to see that there's a range of green, amber and some that are not yet rated. I did speak in my statement a little bit about some of the data that we're still getting in, and we will be publishing an addendum once the data has been analysed. 

One of the big issues for us is to reduce our carbon footprint in the production of food, and to make sure that our carbon sink stays in place, because, really worryingly, the carbon sink, although it has performed as we would have wanted for carbon budget 1, is clearly reducing. And so, one of the big pushes for me to go to COP15 and to make sure that we're playing a full role there is to make sure that, here in Wales, we can maintain and increase the carbon sink that we are operating, not only for our own purposes but for the purposes of the rest of the globe. That is why we make no bones at all about pushing the national forest, the forestation plans, but also the peatland restoration programme, which I'm very pleased to have been able to triple very recently. Also we're about to, combined with the UK Government, ban the sale of peat in its entirety, and not before time either. So, these things are very important and people really need to get behind them.

But we need to have good-quality locally produced food. I mean, obviously the lower the carbon mileage the better, but actually, the higher the nutritional quality the better for our farmers, so it's an absolutely virtuous circle. What's not to like about it? And just to make the point that Lord Deben actually made at the beginning of Climate Change Week, and it's a controversial point as well: this isn't about a plant-based diet; this is about a sustainable diet, and a sustainable diet is one that understands how food is produced and makes choices accordingly. So, I'm afraid if you eat smashed avocado on your Sunday toast, then you are in a very water-intensive, very climate change-unadapted territory. You would be far better off to have a rasher of local bacon—and I speak as somebody who's been a vegetarian all my life. It is very important to understand where food comes from, how it's produced, and how it gets to our table, and in that way, you will benefit local producers of food.

The other thing to say is that not all food that comes from far away is bad. Actually, global trade that supports women's co-operatives and fair trade, and decently produced food abroad, also helps us fight a global climate, because it helps local people to adapt to what they need to be able to produce and export, in order to make their own particular neighbourhood and area more sustainable. I'm very proud of the work that Wales has done in the Wales and Africa programme and the reforestation programmes that we've had in Mbale. That's a very good example—that's far away, but, actually, the global trade has increased the carbon sink of the whole planet, and the locally produced food and better-produced coffee, immeasurably. So, when you enjoy your morning coffee, and it's been produced in Mbale, you'll be able to know that, despite the fact that it's travelled a long way to you, it's nevertheless been sustainably produced by farmers who are properly paid to do it. I think that is the sort of thing that we need in a labelling regime and in a purchasing policy. My friend Rebecca Evans and myself have been discussing the procurement policies for the Welsh public sector, based on that kind of virtuous circle, for quite some time.