Climate Change Challenge for Welsh Assembly

Friends of the Earth Cymru is urging all Assembly Members to support the Welsh Conservatives' call to make climate change the top priority for the Assembly Government. The group is also supporting a Plaid Cymru amendment calling for Wales to make annual reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of 3% every year.

The motion [1] will be discussed at tomorrow afternoon's Assembly session.

Gordon James, Assembly Campaigner with Friends of the Earth Cymru, said:

"The recent United Nations report by an international panel of experts [2] gave a stark warning that we must take radical action now to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"The forthcoming Climate Change Bill, a central demand of Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign, provides a unique opportunity to lead on reducing carbon dioxide emissions across the UK.

"The Welsh Assembly could show leadership by taking real action to address rising carbon dioxide emissions in Wales [3]".

The group has sent a briefing paper to Assembly Members urging them to support the motion and pointing out five key areas that must be addressed:

1. Setting Annual Targets: The Assembly must commit to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of at least three per cent every year. Targets should be set and monitored at a Wales and UK level. In Wales, a cabinet minister should ensure delivery of this policy.
   
2. Planning Policy: The forthcoming planning policy for climate change must make real changes. It can do this by requiring land-use patterns that reduce car dependency; by restricting developments that would generate large amounts of carbon dioxide; by requiring high energy efficiency and embedded renewables in new developments; and by promoting renewable energy projects.
   
3. Change Direction on Transport: Road transport and aviation are an important source of carbon dioxide emissions in Wales. Reduction of vehicle emissions must be a central theme of the new Assembly Government Transport Strategy. This could come from a significant shift in expenditure from road building to public transport, cycling and walking facilities. In particular, the Assembly Government should scrap proposals for the multi-million pound Gwent Levels motorway and develop instead an integrated public transport system. Subsidies for aviation should be scrapped.
   
4. Better energy: The Assembly Government's energy efficiency policy, 'Energy Saving Wales', ought to be re-written to set annual targets for reducing energy use. The new Government of Wales Act should be used to devolve responsibility for building regulations to Wales thus enabling the Assembly to set strong energy conservation standards. Tougher targets also need to be set for generating both electricity and heat from a mix of small to large scale renewable energy schemes.
   
5. Awareness raising: A great deal more needs to be done to raise awareness of the problem of climate change and the actions that people can take to mitigate its effects. WAG should fund a programme that includes high profile advertising in the media, proper funding for local energy advice centres, central and local government demonstration projects and greater emphasis on the issues in schools and colleges.

Notes

1. "NNDM3466: To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:
   Recognises that mitigating the impact of climate change is the most important challenge facing the National Assembly and believes that this must become the first priority of the Assembly Government."
   
2. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fourth Assessment Report, which was published on 2nd February
   
3. The latest data shows that greenhouse gas emissions in Wales in 2004 rose for the third year running and carbon dioxide emissions are still higher than in 1990. See: www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/ ¬
   2007/emissions_rise.html