Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 14 March 2023.
Well, Llywydd, there are some basic things that the Member needs to take into account, particularly when he refers to the needs of future generations. The crisis of our time is a crisis of climate change, and it is those future generations, if we do not act now, which will be left with the consequences of our refusal to face up to that challenge. The roads review is the first root-and-branch review of road building in Wales for many generations. It challenges received wisdom on road building, but it needs to challenge that received wisdom because it is that received wisdom that has got us into the position we are in today. We have to reduce our carbon emissions. Transport makes up 15 per cent of our total emissions in Wales and it has been the most stubborn sector in reducing those emissions. That's why we have to face up to that fact and take the action that will leave those future generations in a better place than they would be. If we simply accepted those very challenging figures that Mark Isherwood set out in the opening of his supplementary question, are we prepared simply to see a future in which traffic goes on growing in that way and emissions go on growing alongside it? Well, this Government is not. That is why we have the roads review, and that is why, when it comes to schemes such as the Menai and such as Wrexham, we're not saying there isn't a problem, we're not saying there isn't something that needs to be done; we're simply saying that the plans of the future have to be based on our responsibilities to tackle that climate emergency, and simply carrying on with the solutions of the past is guaranteed to make that problem worse and not better.