Item 4 is next, the statement by the Minister for Climate Change on renewable energy targets. I call on the Minister, Julie James.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Today, I am publishing our consultation on revising Welsh Government's energy targets. Alongside this, I am also delighted to announce some important investment we are making to stimulate the renewables supply chain, driving economic growth alongside emissions reduction and energy security.

Our current targets signalled Wales's high ambitions for renewable energy and this Government's priority to move away from fossil fuels. We are making progress towards those targets, and we need a strong final push on the projects in development if we are going to meet our 2030 target for renewables to supply 70 per cent of our annual consumption.

But the climate crisis and recent energy price surge has brought into sharp focus the need for a further step change in our ambitions. A local supply of secure, affordable renewable energy, within the context of a strong Great Britain network, is the foundation to a prosperous, zero-carbon society.

I can, therefore, announce that we propose a headline target for Wales to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of our annual electricity consumption from renewable electricity by 2035. Furthermore, we propose that we continue to keep pace with consumption, which is likely to at least double by 2050.

The evidence that is published alongside our proposals indicates the pipeline of projects in development and an illustrative pathway to meeting this target. It is clear that we will need a range of technologies and scales of development to achieve our ambitions. And we will need to be flexible on the right solutions for our communities, and ensure renewable energy can sit alongside Wales's outstanding environmental assets.

What is clear, though, is the role offshore wind is expected to play to reach our goal. Last week, the Crown Estate announced they had issued seabed leases to 8 GW of offshore wind projects. This includes the 1.5 GW Mona project off the north Wales coast. This is a major milestone towards the goal of delivering these projects by the end of this decade.

Fixed offshore wind is already supporting the local economy in north Wales, sustaining 240 good-quality jobs at the port of Mostyn. We are determined to build on this with the upcoming projects, working with the developers to identify local suppliers and build a skilled workforce. We must also learn the lessons of some missed opportunities to capture a greater share of the supply chain for fixed offshore wind, particularly in high-value manufacturing, integration and deployment. I'm therefore delighted to announce that we are granting up to £1 million of support for Port Talbot. This grant will match fund the preparatory work from Associated British Ports to enable future floating offshore wind projects to deploy from Wales. This investment signals to both the industry and the UK Government Welsh Government’s commitment to the floating wind sector. It also provides important funding for the infrastructure that we will need to deliver floating wind to meet our ambitions. Of course, this is not the end of our support, and we will continue to work closely with Port Talbot, Milford Haven Port Authority and colleagues in the Celtic sea alliance to maximise the benefits from floating wind to Wales.

Alongside the production of clean electricity, and the supply chain and employment opportunities it can create, it is also important that communities benefit directly and feel connected to the energy they use in our renewable energy future. The Welsh Government has long been an advocate of local and community ownership across a broad range of renewable technologies and scales of development. To achieve this, we have significantly scaled up the support we offer to communities. We have boosted our Welsh Government energy service offer and provided Community Energy Wales with significantly increased support to enable them to scale up their activities. A local energy grant scheme for community-led projects helps fill the gap left by the UK Government’s decision to end the feed-in tariff scheme. And our guidance on local and shared ownership helps communities to negotiate shared ownership of larger scale projects. And of course, establishing our new public sector renewable energy developer is an important aspect, which will directly retain greater value locally.

Renewing our target demonstrates our continued ambition for that local ownership. We are proposing a target for at least 1.5 GW of renewable energy capacity to be locally owned by 2035, scaling up our current target for 1 GW by 2030. Additionally, recognising the importance of heat decarbonisation, we propose an additional 5.5 GW of renewable energy capacity to be produced by heat pumps by 2035, contingent on scaled-up support from the UK Government and reductions in the cost of deploying this technology. In proposing this target, we welcome any supporting evidence that consultees can provide to inform it. Underpinning all of our proposals and targets are the infrastructure, supply chain and flexibility that will ensure successful delivery of our pipeline of renewable development projects and our energy security.

I've already talked about our support for the development of port infrastructure. Through our manufacturing plan, we are undertaking a supply chain mapping exercise of the marine energy sector. We are particularly looking at the capacity, capability and resilience of existing supply chains and identifying where we can take advantage of opportunities like fixed and floating offshore wind. We are working with network operators and Ofgem to understand and champion the needs of Wales for energy networks capable of supporting a net zero society. And we are encouraging the deployment of storage solutions to support a more resilient energy system. We already have some exemplar skills partnerships, notably the training provided at Coleg Llandrillo Menai to develop specialists in offshore wind. But we want to build on that, and our net zero action plan will set out the steps we will take to develop a world-class workforce for our local projects and great opportunities for school leavers, graduates and those seeking a new career path.

I have often said that Wales must feel the benefit of our renewables revolution and that we cannot make the same mistakes of the past and allow the benefit and profit from our resources to flow out of the country. This statement of intent was made clear in our deep-dive into renewable energy, which provided a vision for Wales to generate renewable energy to at least fully meet our energy needs and to maximise local ownership, retaining economic and social benefits in Wales. Our net zero ambitions will have a large impact on the Welsh economy and our communities as the shift in demand for goods, services and skills evolves. We want to ensure a just transition that provides economic opportunities across Wales, delivering benefit for businesses, communities and citizens.

The opportunities for floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea alone offer opportunities for many thousands of good-quality jobs and tens of billions of pounds of local economic benefit. Working in partnership with private, public and community sector developers, infrastructure operators, skills providers and businesses, we can build a world-class renewables industry here in Wales. Setting these targets is a demonstration of our ambition, and I invite you all to work with us to make this vision a reality. Diolch.

I'd like to thank the Minister for her statement. We all agree that a local supply of secure, affordable renewable energy within the context of a strong GB network is the foundation to a prosperous zero-carbon society. We need to be ambitious to achieve that community that we want to see Wales being, so I welcome your decision, Minister, to set a target for Wales to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of our annual electricity consumption from renewable electricity by 2035. By 2050, electricity consumption is anticipated to increase by between 200 per cent and 300 per cent. This is likely to be mainly due to increased consumption in the heat and transport sectors. So, a question, Minister: alongside pursuing the roll-out of new renewable technologies, what steps will you be taking to try and encourage our community, where they can, to use less electricity?

Now, you have proposed a target for at least 1.5 GW of renewable energy capacity to be locally owned by 2035—[Interruption.] Sorry about my voice. Of the almost 73,000 locally owned renewable electricity and heat projects in Wales, nearly 90 per cent are domestic. The majority of these domestic projects are solar PV and heat pumps, which can be an expensive upfront cost for home owners, and, in our inquiry for retrofitting homes, this turned out to be quite a barrier. Now although 2020 saw 20 out of 22 local authorities increase their generation, just five saw an increase of more than 5 per cent. So, while, clearly, there is some progress being made, it is simply not rapid enough to meet your Government's near-term targets. So, what incentives, Minister, are your Government providing to empower domestic home owners and local authorities to speed up the rate of renewable energy generation?

For example, we know that business rates are a barrier to private hydro schemes. The cost of providing business rates relief to privately owned hydro projects during the 2021 financial year, when we saw so many come on line with this scheme, the last year they were eligible within the scheme, was £380,000. So, to help the drive towards producing more renewable energy and make hydro schemes on farms available, will you consider reintroducing the business rates support for landowners going forward to 2023-24?

In order for these ambitions to be worth something, there has to be a tangible framework for delivery. This includes the development of green jobs, investing in skills and training to deliver well-paid opportunities to the workforce who will be needed to make these renewable projects a success. Therefore, it was disappointing that the publication of the Net Zero Wales skills plan in the autumn of 2022 has been delayed. This means that Wales is the only Government across the whole of UK not to have published anything on net zero skills. So, will you commit, Minister, to the publication of a coherent plan for education and skills training so that these highly paid green jobs can actually become a reality?

Finally, I recently held a meeting with the Crown Estate. They are fully focused on delivery. They do have a wonderful track record of successfully leasing sea bed, to the point that the UK is the second most successful market in the world. As they have made clear to me, there is an opportunity for Wales themselves to be global leaders if we move at pace and we encourage businesses to invest. So, Minister, will you please confirm that you are fully focused on delivery and moving at pace, and, as such, will you rule out pursuing Plaid Cymru's what can only be determined obsession with devolving the Crown Estate? If you don't agree with me, could you tell me what you believe the benefits would be by the devolution of the Crown Estate? But we as a group remain firmly opposed to that. Thank you. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.

Thank you, Janet. I hope your throat gets better soon; I have every sympathy. As you know, I've had a very similar problem myself, so many sympathies there.

Just in terms of the Crown Estate, obviously, we are in favour of the devolution of the Crown Estate, and the benefits of that are just really obvious. First off, the revenue itself is worth having, just straight up. So, even if we didn't want to do anything else, it's clear that the revenue would be worth having. But, actually, what's much, much better in terms of the devolution that we would like to see is what we would then be able to do with ensuring that local supply chain and local employment were embedded into the auction round. Now, I'm very sorry to say that the last auction round, although we are delighted to see it be granted and go ahead, didn't have the kinds of safeguards we would have liked to have seen for local supply and ownership. It was a pass/fail only, and it's not part of the contract conditions.

I'm really sorry about that, because what we've got there is a race to the highest bidder, and then when the contracts for difference round comes out from the Government, that will be a race to the lowest price. And the people who get squeezed in the middle of those two conflicting competitions, run by the same Government, are the suppliers, while the main energy companies who have got the benefit of the auction for leases squeeze their supply chain in order to get the cost for the contracts for difference down as far as possible. And as I said only very recently in the Senedd in another statement, the real problem there is to make sure that the big multinational companies that have won, because of the way that the auction was run, don't simply just revert to their own supply chains at home as the quickest and fastest way of getting that price down, and that's a real problem for us.

If the Crown Estate was devolved, we would have been able to directly influence that, and I'm very sorry that we weren't able to. That supply is actually worth more than the price or the revenue implication, and if you look what's happened in Scotland, that's exactly what they've been able to do. So, I regret that the Crown Estate didn't see fit to do that, and we will continue to work with them for future rounds to make sure that smaller companies, consortiums of smaller companies, and community and locally owned renewables, can be directly associated with the auction, and not part way down the supply chain. So, I think that's a really direct example to you of why it would matter to us. I know your party doesn't agree with it, but I really fail to understand why, to be honest, because the benefits are really, really obvious. 

In terms of energy efficiency, we do have energy efficiency in our planning. It's part of our carbon budget, and it's part of the climate committee recommendations to us. We expect everyone in Wales to play their part. It's not part of this particular statement, but I recommend to you the carbon budget documents themselves, which set out what we expect in terms of energy efficiency. Of course we want to only use the energy that is necessary; of course we want the most efficient grid, and that's part of the same conversation that I've rehearsed, Dirprwy Lywydd, on the floor of this Chamber many times. We need the grid to be as efficient and effective as possible, we need people to be as efficient and effective as possible in their use of energy, both at business and industrial level, and at local level, but, we know, and you set it out yourself, that because of the direction of travel for heat, for electric vehicles, for a whole range of other things, we know that the energy consumption will grow and, as I said in my statement, we're confident that our plan to have 100 per cent renewables will match that ambition, because of the real opportunity that we have here in Wales. It's so exciting to see it.

Everything you said about local ownership I agree with, other than the business rates. There is a real issue there, Dirprwy Lywydd, which I won't go into now, because it'll take far too long. But there is a real issue there about the right level of local taxation for the right level of profit, which, no doubt, we'll have a chance to debate another time.

Thank you, Minister, for the statement. I was pleased to hear what you said about the Crown Estate. If we're going to have an obsession, I would say that having an obsession about having a better and more prosperous future for Wales is a good place to start, to be honest. So, I would associate myself with a number of things that you said about that, because we do have in Wales so much potential in terms of renewable resources, but there are also so many long-standing barriers that need to be recognised before Wales can realise that potential, and we've heard already about one of them.

Over a decade ago, the Welsh Government pledged that you'd take action, but we're still waiting to see the fruits of some of the promises made. There is much to praise, but there is also some frustration about the delays as well. The Welsh Government has a target to see Wales meeting 70 per cent of its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030. But according to the Welsh Government's annual 'Energy Generation in Wales' report last year, the amount of electricity that we use has increased more rapidly than the amount of renewable electricity that's produced in Wales. The percentage of electricity that's used in Wales and that is created through renewable sources has fallen from 56 per cent in 2020 to 55 per cent in 2021. And when we look at the following year, 2022, considering that we faced the after-effects of the pandemic, as well as the cost-of-living crisis and the effects of the international crisis in Ukraine, what impact do you think that these major changes will have on our use of electricity? What impact will that have on our ability to achieve our targets?

We, as a party, have criticised the Government in the past for the slow progress that has been made in this area. When do you think this trend will change or be reversed? I would like it, Minister, if you could set out the milestones that you anticipate that we would be able to pass on the journey towards meeting those targets, please.

Perhaps the biggest barrier of all is our energy grid. You've already mentioned this: the network of pylons, power lines and connections that serve the British energy system. Last week, the First Minister suggested that he would like to see the national grid come under public control. He talked about the huge sums of money that go to shareholders and the backlog of almost 700 renewable energy projects that are still waiting for the grid to find capacity for them. Does the Welsh Government intend to make the case for public control of the national grid? Have you or your officials held discussions with the Westminster Government about nationalising the grid? What impact, finally, do you think that that would have on our ability to achieve our renewable energy targets? Thank you.

Diolch, Delyth. I think there's much to agree on there, and then I can do a bit of an explanation of where we are. So, just in terms of the grid itself, the national grid is one of the worst-named bits of it, really, because it's nothing of the sort; it's a series of different organisations that deploy different bits of the grid. It has been very reactive in the past. It has only responded to customer demands for a grid connection in a particular place before it's deployed. The absence of planning has been—well, we've ended up where we are because of the absence of planning and the absence of future-proofing, because I think it has been evident for a long time that the grid was necessary, even for things like broadband and electric vehicle charging, never mind for any industrial strategy, and it simply hasn't been looked at.

We've been calling for it, as a party, since well before devolution and ever since devolution—that it should be either a national service, which we still believe, or, at the very least, that it should be planned and that the national grid should take account of an upfront investment strategy, even if it was going to cost-recover afterwards. We have finally prevailed in having a holistic network design now being put in place for Wales, and that's a huge step forward in terms of what we can plan for, and that's a process that is very much ongoing; my officials are extremely involved in much of the granular detail. But, you know, it would be far better if it wasn't being done for profit for shareholders, and I think that's just a political philosophy that it's unlikely that the opposite benches will share, but we certainly do share it. At the very least, I'd like to see it as a not-for-profit company.

But, really, the big thing here is the planning. So, we are pleased that, finally, they have seen some sense and are looking at holistic network design. That's been partly driven by the big renewables developers, who are clearly screaming the place down about the fact that—the First Minister said it himself—they'll get the energy to the beach and then be looking for a plug. Where is the plug? That's a really big issue for us; we have to get ahead of that and those plans are proceeding at pace. There's a lot of detail on that, Dirprwy Lywydd, that I've been into a number of times in the Chamber, and I won't repeat it.

In terms of the targets that we have set, there are some issues around the percentage of generation. We have a ridiculous amount of the UK gas energy generation here in Wales through previous historic accident, which I would very much like to see got rid of, and that, obviously, affects the percentage, but we're making good progress towards it. The latest data we have shows that in 2021, renewables generated the equivalent of 55 per cent of our electricity use, against a target of 70 per cent by 2030. So, the reason I'm doing this today is because we think that target will be met and we're trying to increase our ambition. I think that's the right thing to do, so it's absolutely the case that we think that the 70 per cent will be met and now we can go further. We've also already achieved around 90 per cent of our target of 1 GW of renewable energy capacity to be locally owned by 2030. That's an estimated 0.9 GW of generation by 2021, so that also is very good. But, what's holding us back is the grid. That's the point: we would have a lot more of these projects coming forward. A lot more just very domestic, farm businesses or whatever would want to connect renewables in if the grid was fit for purpose, and that is a real limiter for us, and so we need to work on that.

We will be developing as part of our co-operation agreement a company that I’m sure you’re all aware of, Ynni Cymru. I hope very soon that we’ll be able to make some announcements about that company’s ability to intervene in assisting people to get community generation to scale up. There’s a lot of ambition across the country for that, and I’m sure we can work with people. We will, though, have to look at closed grids, because we can’t get the grid connections. But we’ve got to make sure that those closed grids are capable, so that when we do get the grid we need, we can connect in. So, we will be looking outside the box for that, to make sure that people can.

And the last piece that you asked me about was the decarbonisation piece. Obviously, I’ve said a number of times what we’re doing about the right technology for the right house. We will, once we’ve got that ready to go, be starting to look at the deployment of grant assistance and so on, for the poorest and worst-fabric households first, to make sure we can run it out. We are now working with local authorities, and it might be part of Ynni Cymru—it’s under discussion. We will be working to see if we can do community decarbonisation projects—so, all the houses in a particular community, because they’re very energy inefficient, come together to do pieces of work, which makes it more affordable for all of them. That means that you get whole communities coming up at the same time. So, there are a number of plans in the pipeline there.

I very much welcome the statement we’ve heard from the Minister this afternoon, and I very much welcome the vision that you set out, Minister. I’m also very grateful to you for what you’ve just said in answer to the previous question, because I think a number of us were curious, if you like, about what Ynni Cymru would actually do.

I think there are other barriers beyond those that you’ve described in terms of community distributed energy generation. I think the other barriers are finance being available to local groups to enable them to invest in creating the sort of generation capacity that we need for a small community. There’s also the barrier of the technology that is best deployed in different places, and the barriers, of course, of creating the corporate entity that would then manage that project. So, there are a number of different barriers there, and you’ve already described planning, of course. When I was sitting in your seat as a Minister responsible for this, I found that most of my budget was being used fighting other parts of the public sector, and it was one of the most frustrating jobs that I’ve done. So, I think we need to unpick that, and to ensure that community generation is something that we can focus on.

The final point I’ll make, without testing the patience of the Deputy Presiding Officer too far, is the alternative to that, because in Blaenau Gwent, one of the smallest constituencies in the country, we have an application for Manmoel wind, Mynydd Carn-y-Cefn in Abertillery, Mynydd Llanhilleth, Abertillery, and two in the Rassau. That is too much for a small community, and the danger is that if you surround people with 185m turbines, what you do is not generate more energy, but lose the goodwill of the population, and that goodwill of the population is what’s going to help us achieve the targets that you’ve set out for us this afternoon.

Thank you, Alun. I absolutely agree with the last point. The big issue there is to make sure that the community has the renewable energy it wants and needs, but also there’s a huge piece there about not just community benefits, but proper community ownership. So, we are very keen indeed to facilitate any company that’s building an onshore windfarm—I hope we can do this with floating wind as well, but certainly onshore—to actually build turbines directly for community ownership. So, we can facilitate, via the Development Bank for Wales, local people having an actual share in that. That will mean they get a direct benefit in their energy bills, which is not permissible under the community benefits scheme, and also means that we can further a decarbonisation agenda, so we can actually get people’s bills right down. I think that has a fundamental effect on the amount of renewables that people want to see around them, if I’m honest.

The other big piece for me is we often have—I don’t know that your community’s in this particular place—communities that can see one or two or more windfarms out their windows who are on off-grid oil. We absolutely need to find a way to get those communities to be able to connect directly into the renewable electricity: (a) to decarbonise, (b) to get that community buy-in you talked about, and (c) how frustrating is that? That you’ve got that wealth of opportunity on your doorstep and you can’t get to it. Many of the communities that I serve and that Rebecca Evans serves are in exactly that position, and I’d imagine a number of colleagues around the Chamber are in that position, so we’re really keen to make sure that we spread out the largesse, if you like, and this community ownership piece is a really big part of that. So, we're very keen indeed to make sure that, as the state-owned developer rolls out, these exemplar sites—where we build turbines specifically for the community to own and we put up the price first, and we allow the community to buy into it over a very, very long period of time so that it's accessible to all income levels—really make a difference as those profits start to come into communities. 

And then on the other two pieces, I completely agree with you around the access to funding, access to technology advice and access to corporate advice. I don't want to pre-announce the Ynni Cymru co-operation agreement talks that we're having, but they're progressing very nicely and I hope to be able to make an announcement soon that will cover off a number of those heads. 

I'd like to raise two points and ask two questions, if I may. In order to achieve our goals and reach our targets, clearly we need large-scale projects, but we can all play a part as well, and smaller-scale projects cumulatively will play a significant part. In England, small roof-mounted wind turbines are allowed under permitted development. However, permitted development rights do not apply to wind turbines here in Wales. Will you look at this and consider applying permitted development rights to small wind turbines here in Wales please, Minister? 

I know you mentioned that you didn't want to repeat yourself, but I will, and it's important for the record. I was disappointed last week to receive an e-mail from Nova Innovation, who notified me that their plans for the Enlli tidal project were being mothballed. They cited three main reasons for this, but most importantly, as we heard earlier, the lack of grid connection. This issue faces others, with farmers, for instance, on the Llŷn peninsula not able to develop wind or solar projects because of this lack of grid capacity. According to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee's recent report on grid capacity in Wales, securing planning consent for grid reinforcements can take longer than constructing the energy project itself. So, without significantly increasing this capacity, there's no point discussing creating new generating abilities. So, will the Minister support the call to entirely devolve energy production and break up the monopoly of the national grid, so that Wales can develop her own ability to move electricity around the nation and invest in those communities that need it? Thank you.   

Thank you, Mabon. Yes, we would like to have much more control over the national grid, absolutely, because of all of the issues we've discussed endlessly—the need to plan it out, the need for better investment, and so on. So, I think that's taken as read, really. The real issue with a number of projects around Wales—on land, onshore, on sea—has been grid connection, and the real problems with that. So, we are hoping to be able to move that on significantly with the new holistic network design process and, indeed, with the co-operation agreement with Ynni Cymru and a number of other interventions we hope will make a difference. So, I do hope to be able to report a step change in that once we've got those interventions in place and we understand where the holistic network design process is going to take us.  

In terms of the small roof-mounted turbines, yes, I'm very interested in exploring permitted development rights for a number of renewables that are possible. We have a small complication in some parts of Wales that are designated landscapes. We need to make sure that the community comes with us on this, and we need to make sure that they're done sympathetically to some of our environments. But yes, in principle we are looking to very closely to see what can be allowed. There are also some other issues people have raised in the Chamber around how close an air-source heat pump can be to another dwelling and all that kind of stuff, which we are having a good look at to make sure we have the most effective, most recent advice about a number of these things. So, I'm very interested in looking at that, but we do want to get it right so that we get community buy-in, and not community upheaval with that. 

The last thing is just in terms of that planning point and the grid connections. We are going to be introducing an infrastructure consenting Bill to the Senedd shortly, which will take some of the big projects out of the current system. But again, this community buy-in point is a really important one. I don't want people to have to have high-voltage pylons coming across their land because we've got a windfarm right next door to them without them having a really good say about where and how that energy should be removed. It's often the case that it's not the windfarm itself that people are having a problem with—it's the way that the energy is taken away from it.

You'll be very aware that we need to combine this with all of the work we're doing on biodiversity and landscape preservation. For some landscapes, you do not want to underground it. I don't want to dig up peatland in order to do that. But, for other landscapes, undergrounding may be an option. It's really very much an individual route thing. So, we need to make sure that the planning is calibrated, exactly as for the marine consenting, to hit the sweet spot between the right protection for our landscapes and the right speed for the connectivity, to make sure that the communities who live in all of the areas where this might happen get all of the benefits associated with it and as few of the downsides as we can manage.

Finally, Joyce Watson.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you for your statement, Minister. The big news in my region is the huge investment by QatarEnergy in South Hook LNG. It will mean the terminal will be able to handle about 25 per cent more liquefied natural gas imported from around the world. There's no question that it will be a massive boost for Pembrokeshire, and I've no doubt the First Minister and the economy Minister did a fantastic job of promoting Wales as an energy hub at the football world cup. I know it sounds off topic, but we are discussing renewable energy and the transition. So, we need to do that, and it's been mentioned already, by retaining and investing in the assets, the workforce, the skills and the technology that can deliver that transition. wMilford Haven, of course, will be critical in that journey. Only last week, Samuel Kurtz, Cefin Campbell, Jane Dodds and myself sponsored a reception for the Haven Waterway Future Energy Cluster. The big ambition is to achieve the 20 per cent of UK Government low-carbon hydrogen production target by 2030, and at least 10 per cent floating offshore wind by 2035. Grid capacity, of course, has been mentioned, the consenting regime, and all the other ways that the Welsh Government can and does support the sector, the details of which I know you're very much across, Minister. But can I ask you how you think that South Hook investment might be used to embed and attract further investment to the west Wales energy sector, principally our renewables sector, going forward?

Thank you very much, Joyce. It's a very good point. We've been working for quite some time now with a range of stakeholders—and I know you know this—to make sure that we do a whole range of things. First of all, we attract the right kind of investment, and there are enormous issues with that. We don't want greenwashing, for example, but we do want proper investment in renewables and in biodiversity as well. We need to make sure that we have the right financial instruments in place to do that. It was one of the best things coming out of COP15, the amount of learning that was being done globally on how to get those right. It was a real relief to me to see that we were not alone in trying to make the distinction between those two things.

The second is that we've been doing an enormous amount of work, both with our port authorities and the infrastructure surrounding them, and with our supply chains, to make sure that the supply chains are as ready as they can be to meet the challenge that's to come from the new floating wind, but also the ongoing onshore wind and other renewables, and that we can take advantage of the new hydrogen research projects all over Wales, to make sure that we can get as much green hydrogen out of the new renewables that are going. Milford Haven is well placed to take advantage of some of that and have been working very hard on it.

The last piece is that we'll be doing the supply chain analysis, so that where there are gaps, we can actually proactively work, with our port authorities in particular, to make sure that they are also reaching out to people who could come in and fill those supply chain gaps, capturing inward investment and skills investment to make sure that we take the best advantage of this.

My colleague Vaughan Gething and I will be bringing forward a net-zero skills plan. That's being trialled with industry at the moment to make sure that it's fit for purpose and that it's futureproofed. We need to capture all of the green skills that we need for the future to make sure that we have one of the most sustainable economic countries in the world; I'm very keen on that ambition. And your area will be very much pivotal in that, both for its industrial clusters, but, actually, of course, for its abundant natural resources both around the coast and on land. So, as we go forward, I'm sure we will continue to work in absolute lockstep with the manufacturing industries and the Haven authority itself, as we do that. I'm very sorry I couldn't make that evening meeting, but I have met with them on a number of occasions. And if you want to invite me down there, I'd be very happy to come again. Diolch.

Thank you, Minister.