NDM7815 - Opposition Debate
Tabled on 27/10/2021 | For debate on 03/11/2021To propose that the Senedd:
1. Notes the Welsh Government’s intention to promote a green recovery during the sixth Welsh Parliamentary term.
2. Further notes the UK Government’s 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution.
3. Welcomes the appointment of a Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change.
4. In order to help a green recovery, calls on the Welsh Government to:
a) work with the UK Government and set out a plan to deliver thousands of green collar jobs for a greener economy;
b) urgently bring forward key pledges such as a clean air Bill, banning of single use plastics for non-medical use, and a deposit-return scheme;
c) create an independent office for environmental protection and climate change for Wales, which will hold the Welsh Government and public bodies to account in tackling climate change;
d) provide further investment into marine and offshore wind energy; and
e) update existing legislation and planning rules to set long-term targets and milestones for nature recovery as well as mandating biodiversity net gains on new development.
Tabled By
Amendments
Add as new sub-points at end of point 4:
develop and implement a marine development plan to provide certainty to energy developers by guiding the siting of renewable developments away from the most ecologically sensitive areas;
maximise Wales’s potential for renewable energy and economic development by seeking the full devolution of the management of the Crown Estate and its assets in Wales to the Welsh Government, alongside the full devolution of energy powers;
invest in decarbonisation research, particularly for key industrial sectors such as steel, to position Wales as a world leader in emerging Welsh strengths such as hydrogen and marine energy;
urgently introduce legally binding nature recovery targets for Welsh habitats and species, with the core aims of reversing biodiversity decline by 2030 and seeing substantive biodiversity recovery by 2050;
invest heavily in nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity decline, in both terrestrial and marine environments.
Tabled By
Delete point 4 and add new points:
Regrets the year-on-year fall in cash terms of capital funding available as a result of the failure of the UK Government’s spending review to address the urgency of the climate and nature emergency, reducing the Welsh Government capital budget by 11 per cent in real terms by 2024-25 compared to this year.
Calls on the Welsh Government:
a) to produce a net zero skills action plan that promotes fair work in support of a just transition;
b) to bring forward a clean air Bill to establish an air quality target setting framework, which will take account of World Health Organisation guidelines;
c) to establish an environmental oversight body for Wales and introduce statutory targets to address the nature crisis in Wales;
Calls on the UK Government:
a) to recognise Wales’s ambition to ban single-use plastics by making regulations excluding them from the scope of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020;
b) to amend the Coal Industry Act 1994 to enable the implementation of Welsh Government policy to avoid the extraction of fossil fuels;
c) to replace, in full, funding previously received from the European Union to enable investment in the development of the marine energy industry in Wales;
d) to support rail electrification of the entire North Wales mainline and South Wales mainline as a significant step towards a net zero public transport system.
United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020
