3. Will the First Minister make a statement on investment in renewable energy in Wales? OQ59021

Last week’s awarding of a seabed lease to the Mona project is a milestone moment. Providing that conditions are right, major private sector investment can be mobilised to create a renewable energy future for Wales. 

King Charles said last week that he was eager to see a percentage of the Crown Estate's profit used for broader public good. Many of us would argue that all of the income of the Crown Estate should be used for the broader public good. It's a policy for many of us to devolve the Crown Estate, and I'd be very pleased to hear what work the Government is currently doing to move that agenda forward. But also, do you agree with me that income generated from the Crown Estate shouldn't be the basis of the sovereign grant that maintains the royal family? 

The Government's policy is to have the Crown Estate devolved here to us in Wales. We have had more than one conversation with the Crown Estate and we've presented the same idea to the UK Government as well. As I know Llyr Gruffydd will know, with the current UK Government, there will be no opportunity, I don't think, to move ahead with that idea. But in the opinion of the Government, that's the best way to do it. By doing things in that way, the money from the natural resources here in Wales will be in the hands of the people of Wales, and that's the best way to proceed. 

Development plans, and, indeed, our national development plan, are the backbone when we're looking at future planning on land. We've asked, for many reasons, why there isn't the same detailed approach out at sea. This is a point we've spoken about for several years. I was proud to see a majority in this Welsh Parliament back our legislative proposal to create a national marine development plan for Wales. You've yet to progress with these proposals, and they're backed by RSPB Cymru, other non-governmental organisations and lots of conservationists. Would you agree with me that a spatial approach is key?

Turning to the 2023-24 budget, as Wales Environment Link have highlighted, it's really concerning to see the contrast between the budget lines of marine policy evidence and funding, which is around £1.9 million, and marine energy, set at £7 million. That's quite a gap. Will you explain the £5.1 million gap? I know we need renewables, First Minister, but you have to balance this, and we've been calling on the Minister to do this by having this plan. Would you not agree that more evidence is important now, if Welsh Government are continuing to plan to accelerate offshore renewable deployments, so that these don't come at the cost of our natural biodiversity and our conservation? Thank you.  

We have a marine plan. The first Wales marine plan was published in November 2019 and the first three-year review of that plan was laid before the Senedd on 10 November. So, I'm not absolutely sure what the Member is asking for when that plan exists and it's been reported here to Senedd Members. On the specific issue of the budget, the Minister is in front of committee tomorrow and will no doubt be able to respond to that point. However, Llywydd, it is difficult for me to know quite how to respond to the contradictory messages that I receive from members of the Conservative Party. I receive letters from the Secretary of State for Wales urging me to get on with development and not to allow environmental considerations to hold up the necessary work of renewable energy, and I have the Member here from the same party urging me not to rush ahead with energy development so that we can protect the environment.

The truth of the matter is you have to balance both of those considerations, and it's a difficult balancing act. As I said last week in answering Sam Kurtz, I want Natural Resources Wales to be an enabling organisation. I want it to be able to give confidence to renewable energy developers, including developments of marine energy. I want those developers to have confidence that the system exists in Wales to get them the consents that they need. At the same time, NRW must discharge its responsibilities as an environmental regulator. In Wales we won't sacrifice the precious environment that is the sea in a short-term dash to see developments that aren't capable of being consented. But holding those two things in balance is a challenging business. And we discuss it; I know the Minister was discussing it with NRW only last week. 

I welcome the First Minister's statement in answer to Llyr Gruffydd supporting the devolution of the Crown Estate. I think that's a very important move in terms of providing renewable energy supplies for Wales, and I'm looking forward to the Minister for Climate Change's statement later this afternoon on those targets. But, First Minister, as well as ensuring that we have the ability to deliver the large-scale developments that are required to meet net-zero targets, is it also possible to balance that with a greater emphasis on local community-owned renewable generation? Because when I speak to my constituents, they have fears about some of the larger scale developments that could take place on the valley tops around Blaenau Gwent, but what they want is a commitment to net zero, and they want to play their part in delivering net zero. And that means local schemes, which we can feel an ownership of and which we feel we can be a part of, to ensure that every part of our community has access to renewable energy generation at a reasonable cost.

I certainly agree about the importance of local community energy. In the statement that the Minister will make later this afternoon, I anticipate that she will have something to say about new and more ambitious targets in that part of what we do.

The Welsh Government has significantly increased our support for Community Energy Wales. It's chaired these days by our former colleague Leanne Wood, and I was grateful for some recent discussions with her about some potential community energy developments in the Cardiff West constituency. So, I think, as Alun Davies has said about his constituents, so in every part of Wales there are individuals and organisations that want to see, in addition to the absolutely necessary large-scale commitment to renewables, the ability to do things in that local sense. We're committed to a very significant proportion of renewable energy in Wales generated through that local route, and the support of communities across Wales for it is part of the strength that Wales brings to this agenda.