Environment Minister has today declared a
climate emergency in Wales ahead of a meeting with UK and
Scottish Ministers in Cardiff.
The declaration sends a clear signal that the Welsh Government
will not allow the process of leaving the EU to detract from the
challenge of climate change, which threatens our health, economy,
infrastructure and our natural environment.
As the UK, Scottish and Welsh ministers with responsibility for
the environment meet in Cardiff today, the announcement draws
attention to the magnitude and significance of the latest
evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and
highlights the recent climate protests across the UK.
The latest advice on from the Welsh Government’s statutory
advisory body the UK Committee on Climate Change on how meeting
the goals in the Paris Agreement might affect Wales’ long-term
climate change legislative targets is due at the end of the week.
Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs , said: “I believe we have
the determination and ingenuity in Wales to deliver a low carbon
economy at the same time as making our society fairer and
healthier.
“We hope that the declaration by Welsh Government today can help
to trigger a wave of action at home and internationally. From our
own communities, businesses and organisations to parliaments and
governments around the world.
“Tackling climate change is not an issue which can be left to
individuals or to the free market. It requires collective action
and the government has a central role to making that collective
action possible.
“No nation in the world has yet fully grasped this challenge but
just as Wales played a leading role in the first industrial
revolution, I believe Wales can provide an example to others of
what it means to achieve environmental growth.
“Our sustainable development and environmental legislation is
already recognised as world leading and now we must use that
legislation to set a new pace of change.”
The Welsh Government has committed to achieving a carbon neutral
public sector by 2030 and to coordinating action to help other
areas of the economy to make a decisive shift away from fossil
fuels, involving academia, industry and the third sector. Last
month, it published Prosperity for All: A Low Carbon Wales, which
sets out 100 policies and proposals to meet the 2020 carbon
emissions targets.
The plan for 2021-26 is already being prepared and will go
further and faster. Welsh Government is also currently reviewing
farmer support post Brexit with public goods element and updating
its Nature Recovery Action Plan to drive urgent action to
increase the resilience of our ecosystems in order to reverse the
decline in habitats and species.
Notes
The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and
Environment (Wales) Act 2016 were two ground-breaking pieces of
legislation passed by the National Assembly and are changing the
way decisions are made in Wales, ensuring we act in the interests
of future generations and put sustainability at the heart of
policy.
The Environment (Wales) Act was described as “world-leading
legislation” to tackle climate change – it contains strong
environmental aims; it puts sustainability at the heart of
decision-making by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and has tough
targets to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions and increase
recycling rates.
The Future Generations Act affects everything any public body
does. All public organisations must now take into account the
long-term effects of any decision they make and the knock-on
impact it may have, in terms of the prosperity of people in
Wales, its environment, culture and communities.
