Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 22 March 2023.
I'm pleased this subject has been raised this afternoon. I have grave concerns over the decarbonisation of pension funds and how that will be implemented over a sustained period of time as a lot of public sector pensions rely on investments in fossil fuels. If you want a statement of fact, in the Member for Alyn and Deeside's own constituency, in Flintshire, they invested in renewables and clean tech way back in 2008 and 2009. So, you saw the perfect example in his own constituency of how a council can work proactively in decarbonising the pensions themselves without necessarily having the legislative framework in place to support that.
But the question I want to ask, Minister, particularly around this is around the lowest-paid workers, some of whom fall within the Clwyd pension fund, which covers my constituency in Denbighshire. In terms of implementation, what would that look like in terms of protecting the lowest-paid workers so that we don't impoverish the lowest-paid workers who very committedly engaged in pension funds all their working career and want a reward when they do decide to retire? What steps is the Welsh Government taking to support the lowest-paid workers in Denbighshire in that sense? Thank you.