, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, it is going on, and that’s why we’re encouraging them to bring forward the consultation ASAP so that we can get on with it.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
—yes—the carbon budget. I'm sure you could do it in writing, Jon, but do you mind, Chair, if I give Jon the last minute?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
So, we're very keen to bring forward the consultation as soon as possible. We want to get on with it, basically. We need to understand what the effect of the EU carbon border tax will be for the UK and we need to do that at some speed. I can see that Jon is…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, Huw. So, I was just going to come to say that the biggest issue for us is greater transparency in the use of the revenues generated. So, when we finally hit on this scheme and people do have to pay for some of their allowances, then the reinvestment of…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thanks, Huw. So, I'm definitely going to get Jon and Lucy to come in on this one, but just to start you off. So, this is based on the 'polluter pays' principle and it's a market-based policy—you already know this—incentivising investment in low-carbon…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
There was a process, yes.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Indeed.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Well, they'll publish their terms of reference and how they were formed at the appropriate time. I'm not going to pre-announce it, sorry.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
So, I answered that last one, Janet. They're going to come to the group as an observer, and then, tempting though it is to pre-announce things, and you're all very good at tempting me to do this, as I've just said, the group will publish its terms of…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
So, we hope the group will help us bring Welsh society along with us. That's what we want. That's the big problem for us. So, as I said right at the beginning, we could go to net zero much faster if we didn't care about anything else, but we do care—all of…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you, Delyth. As you know, this is part of the co-operation agreement between the Welsh Government and the Plaid Cymru group, and the agreement committed us to commission independent advice to examine potential pathways to net zero by 2035. I've had a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
And then there are others that are ongoing. So, you'll all be familiar with the innovative housing programme, for example. My colleague Jeremy Miles has made sure that all new schools are now at net zero. That's an incoming Minister making a change there. So…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Poor Jon is struggling. So, policies are a bit more arbitrary than your question would lead, aren't they? We have a new policy called the roads review—that wasn't in contemplation when the budget was put in place. Two new Ministers came in, and they had a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Huw, can I translate that for a minute? Sorry, if you don't mind.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes. I don't know if it's you or Lucy, Jon—whichever of you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thanks, Huw. So, the data piece is really important here; sectors have varying degrees of data availability, and some policies apply a much longer term impact on greenhouse gas emissions that can't be observed over a five-year-long carbon budget period. So…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
If it helps the committee, the current Minister is Graham Stuart. [Laughter.]
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Sure, Janet. There's a Welsh energy service that can help, but, actually, if you're talking about a very large array, then you've probably got a grid capacity problem, depending on where you are in Wales—and that's why I said, Chair, I won't go into it now…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thanks, Janet. So, we've done a huge number of things in this space. The deployment rate since 2015 reflected a lot of uncertainty in the market, particularly the support available from UK Government funding streams. Again, we bitterly regret the loss of the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
As I say Jenny, if you want to go into scrutiny of the Bill, you'll have to make sure you've got Lesley in front of you. I'm not here to do that.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
—the rural affairs Minister, and not for me, but obviously we work very closely with her. So, I'm not going to be answering on any very specific policy proposals. You'll all know it's going through Stage 2 of formal Senedd scrutiny at the moment. But…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Just to be really clear, Jenny, obviously you know perfectly well this is a matter for Lesley Griffiths—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thanks, Chair. So, we've got a real problem with good quality, complete and up-to-date data here, and there's a lack of some key data sets to characterise changes in the sector. We're working on a plan to try and sort that out, so I just wanted to put that as…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Indeed, it did, so there we are.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Carbon Budget 1 and Net Zero Wales - scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Well, in the spring, and I'm not going to preannounce it, I'm afraid. I'm always tempted by committees into preannouncing things, but I'm not going to.
