6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Offshore renewable energy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 18 January 2023.

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Photo of Samuel Kurtz Samuel Kurtz Conservative 5:05, 18 January 2023

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I’ve responded to the Minister before on a debate where I’ve agreed with so much of what she said, and, for 30 seconds this afternoon, I agreed with nigh on 100 per cent of it, and then I felt, Minister, you really did miss the aim of what we were trying to do with this debate this afternoon, in the consensual nature as to what this is doing. Even only last night, there was cross-party support in terms of the event I hosted around renewable energies. I think you completely missed the mark on what we were trying to achieve here this afternoon.

But we have had, from sensible benches on my left-hand side, an emphasis in this Chamber throughout the debate about the host of opportunities Wales’s coastline has to offer: an unprecedented treasure of blue and green opportunities that not only aid our fightback against climate change, but enhance the environment, economy and our society. And unlike other parts of Britain, not only are these opportunities exclusive to one region, they are available to us around the whole coast of Wales, from the utilisation of north Wales’s coastline—as Janet so passionately spoke about at the beginning—to the abundance of untapped energy in Pembrokeshire’s floating offshore wind potential. So, let’s not be a nation that just boasts of these possibilities, that potential—as Delyth Jewell said on Zoom—that potential that we have here; let’s seize that with both hands and be part of the story, the global story, here in Wales.

And this is already under way in west Wales. We saw, as I mentioned, and heard that last night, during the Haven Waterway future energy cluster Senedd reception: Pembrokeshire is the critical energy asset to decarbonising the south Wales industrial cluster and obtaining the United Kingdom’s energy security, with the UK’s largest energy port in the Haven Waterway. But, for this to be the case, then this Government—and the UK Government, absolutely; we need to be working collaboratively—must pursue a path of cross-industry application, bringing together both the public and the private sectors, displaying an immediate focus on advancing our green energy sector.