How is the Welsh Government tracking its progress towards achieving net zero emissions?
The Environment (Wales) Act sets out our statutory emissions reduction framework and the Act requires us to report progress against these emission reduction targets and carbon budgets.
The process outlining how Welsh Government tracks its progress on our emissions reduction targets can be found within the Monitoring and Reporting section, on page 221 of Net Zero Wales published 21 October 2021. This includes the review of annual emissions through greenhouse gas emissions data as well as a qualitative and quantitative monitoring and reporting framework, which allows for tracking of the policies within the Plan including implementation. The Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system consists of a suite of quantitative performance indicators within a tiered structure, which seek to track progress from the national level down to the policy level.
Under the Well-being of Future Generations framework we also have a monitoring approach that measures national progress in achieving the seven well-being goals. Our national well-being indicators tell the story of progress towards these goals and every year the Well-being of Wales Report provides an updated assessment of long term and short term changes to Wales’ economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being, drawing on the national indicators and milestones alongside other data. Within this framework we measure greenhouse gas emissions (Indicator #41 and 42) and publish annual updates.
The Climate Change Committee also provide us with their assessment of progress and we have just published our response to the latest report.