11. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Climate Change about how farmers can contribute to improving energy efficiency in Arfon? OQ58969

Diolch. I have regular engagement with the Minister for Climate Change on a range of portfolio issues. Regarding farmers improving energy efficiency, our sustainable farming scheme will offer future support to help farmers decarbonise and, currently, we offer farmers energy efficiency support through our small grants efficiency scheme, which opened two days ago.

Recently, I had an opportunity to visit a new centre on the site of an old factory in the Nantlle valley, which is decarbonisation hub or centre in Tŷ Gwyrddfai in Penygroes, which brings a number of partners together with a core aim of improving energy efficiency of people's homes, not just in Arfon, but across north Wales and further afield. An important part of this work will be innovation with new methods of improving housing stock, and Bangor University is part of this work. I believe that the agricultural community has an important contribution to make to this agenda, and one example is the use of wool as an insulation material in homes. So, what is the Government doing to harness the innovative potential of the agricultural community to improve energy efficiency in Wales?

Thank you. You make a very important point about the role that our agriculture sector and our farmers can make in relation to energy efficiency. I met with the British Wool Council—it's probably 18 months ago now—where we discussed the use of Welsh wool, obviously, particularly from my point of view, in relation to insulation, for instance. They believe that there are more—probably 'worth while' is the wrong term—more efficient uses of British wool than just insulation, but I think what we need to look at is all the technology that's available, all the innovation that's available to help us with energy efficiency. I mentioned that we just open the window for the small grants efficiency scheme. I really want that scheme to be able to offer direct support to our farmers so that they can invest in new technology and equipment to really enhance the technical and financial and environmental performance of their business.