, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Diolch yn fawr iawn. We will come on to the Bill now. Diolch, Delyth. I'll invite Janet to lead us in a few questions.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Yes, after you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
You're right, we are going to come on to talk about the Bill—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
That's a good example.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
That's a question that we can ask others. I'm just mindful that we've only asked two questions. Delyth, back to you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Okay. Which suggests that the programme for government was not budgeted for, but there we are. That's not for you to answer.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
And Richard Unsworth made the point earlier in the previous session that an element of the programme of government around seagrass is needing to apply from a competitive pot of funding to be implemented, which is hardly the best approach, really.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Carolyn, very quickly.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Yes. [Laughter.] Yes, I feel your pain. [Laughter.] Okay, well, look, we'll come back to these issues from different perspectives as we go along, so I'll invite Delyth now to take us into the next area of questioning.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Okay.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Sure. But bringing those into statutory targets, et cetera, you think is a way of trying to capture that, I suppose, yes?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Sure. Sorry to interrupt, but maybe what I should ask is: do you think there's a clear picture of progress against the global targets at the minute?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Sure. And we'll come on to some specifics in a minute. I'm just trying to get a picture of whether you think the Government are pretty clear in their minds in terms of where they’re at in terms of those global targets. Or are we still in a bit of a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
I'll come to you, Chloe. I mean, the academics in the previous session told us that much of what's happening now is, frankly, based on goodwill and teamwork. Is that a fair reflection, do you think? What does the trajectory look like?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Alex.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with environmental organisations
Welcome back to the committee. We're moving to the second panel that we're going to hear evidence from this morning, and these are environmental organisations. It's my pleasure to welcome Annie Smith, head of policy and advocacy for the Royal Society for the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
And that's a positive note to finish on, so thank you very much to the three of you for joining us this morning. We very much appreciate the evidence that you've given us, both in written form, but also today orally. It will certainly inform the work that we…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
And the very last word from Victoria.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Sure, and we understand that the Government has, just this week, published a consultation on the principles of private investment in this sphere, so, hopefully, those issues will be addressed as part of that. Fine. We’ll move on finally, then, to Joyce.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Okay. Fine. We’ll move on to the—. Do you want to add anything?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Thank you. Steve.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
What was it, sorry?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Go on. Good, because that's where I was going to go next. We've spoken a lot about funding, but we haven't really addressed it.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Well, yes, go on then.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Halting and reversing the loss of nature by 2030 - evidence session with academics
Excellent. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Right, I'm conscious we have 20 minutes left, and I know that Carolyn, Joyce and, if possible, I would like to come in on a few things as well, so we'll move straight to Carolyn.
