Oral - Climate Change Commission

I am pleased to report on the most recent meeting of the Climate Change Commission for Wales, held on 26 March. I provided an overview of the actions that have been undertaken by the Assembly Government since the commission last met in January. I will outline the key updates.

The consultation on the first stage of the Welsh Assembly Government climate change strategy had ended, and the full report on the responses has since been published. The consultations on green jobs and the strategic policy position statement on water had also ended. The consultation on the national energy efficiency and savings plan was launched, and is still ongoing; it outlines how the Assembly Government intends to reduce residential and business emissions, and tackle fuel poverty. The Assembly Government response to the advice of the Committee on Climate Change to the UK Government was finalised and sent to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

I attended the European Environment Council meeting in Brussels as part of the UK delegation. These meetings form an important part of the run-up to the UN framework convention on climate change in Copenhagen later this year. Six new climate change champions had been selected, and were already hard at work, including going on a fact-finding visit to Brussels. Parc Crescent in Bargoed, a sustainable housing development part-funded by the Assembly Government, held an open day to showcase the low-carbon houses it had finished constructing. A sum of £30 million of European funding had been secured for flood risk management in Wales, and the first tranche of projects worth £17 million had been announced.

Cardiff was announced as Wales’ first sustainable travel town in a £28.5 million scheme to reduce transport emissions in the capital.       The UK Government and devolved administrations had launched a series of consultations on regulatory obligations, including the new carbon reduction commitment, and bringing aviation into the EU emissions trading scheme.

The Assembly Government booklet, ‘Improving your home: A climate change guide’, will now be stocked by B&Q and independent DIY stores. I attended the Menelaus lecture at Cardiff University, which provided an engineering viewpoint on climate change and the urgency with which we now need to act. The finalists of NESTA’s Big Green Challenge were announced, and the Green Valleys project in the Brecon Beacons was shortlisted. This competition, with a £1 million prize fund, rewards community innovation in reducing emissions. Commission members also provided updates about the work underway in their sectors and organisations.

The commission received an update on the ‘Wales Spatial Plan’ from the Sustainable Development Commission. Commission members then participated in a workshop session to harness their expertise to help develop a mechanism for integrating climate change into spatial plan area group decisions. The long-term aim of this work is to turn all the spatial plan areas into low-carbon regions.

Commission members had a chance to comment on a summary of the responses to the consultation on the high-level Assembly Government policy document, which is part of the climate change strategy. In particular, commission members emphasised that we should act immediately when we know that we can make emission reductions, rather than delaying action until precise savings can be calculated.

The commission was also updated on the Assembly Government’s progress towards developing the second stage of the climate change strategy. Commission members were supportive of the way in which the document is shaping up, and were keen to see the emission reduction proposals that we are developing across all departments.

There was an opportunity for commission members to discuss the future structure and work programmes of the commission. When they met in January, commission members and Assembly Government officials identified a series of difficult issues. These are areas in which there is potential for significant emission reduction or a major challenge in relation to the impacts of climate change, but are difficult to achieve, for some reason. In future, the commission will work on solving some of these difficult issues, and will advise the Assembly Government on how best to go about making the most of opportunities.

The commission will also be carrying out work to develop scenarios for 6 per cent and 9 per cent annual reductions in Wales. Commission members have always been keen to point out that, in the future, it may be necessary to increase our annual emission reductions beyond 3 per cent, and so it is essential that we do not lock ourselves into long-term, carbon-intensive pathways. The scenarios that the commission will develop will help us to imagine what these more ambitious targets would mean for Wales, and will enable us to increase our efforts more easily in the future.

The Welsh European Funding Office provided an update on the availability of European funding for Welsh projects. There is still scope for additional energy projects in Wales and the commission members agreed to encourage proposals.

Throughout the meeting, commission members were keen to ensure that adaptation is treated as seriously as emission reduction. While the Assembly Government has a commitment to reduce Welsh greenhouse gas emissions in areas of devolved competence by 3 per cent every year by 2011, action on adapting to the consequences of climate change is equally important. Some changes in climate are inevitable, and it is critical that we ensure that Wales is prepared for increased flooding, heat waves, and other extreme weather events.

The meeting concluded with a visit from Mark Lynas, a journalist and activist who authored the book Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, and who also acted as a scientific advisor for the movie The Age of Stupid. Mark held an informal discussion with commission members on a variety of topics, including a commitment by the Maldives to be carbon neutral within ten years.