Oral - Climate Change Commission

I am pleased to report on the fourth meeting of the Climate Change Commission for Wales held on 9 October, at which I provided an overview of the actions that have been undertaken by the Assembly Government since the commission last met in June. Key updates included the launch, on 29 September, of our climate change communications media campaign, online carbon calculator, and the unique 'footprint’ brand, which has been developed to tie other activity to the campaign, the launch in July of the community action pack and DVD, progress on the delivery of the low carbon building programme fuel poverty microgeneration pilot scheme and proposed structural funds projects on community energy generation and flood risk management, and the appointment in July of Julia King, vice-chancellor of Aston University, as a sixth member of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

The UK Committee on Climate Change published its advice on the level of the 2050 target on 6 October and the Climate Change Bill is being amended to reflect that advice. The committee will publish its advice on the level of the carbon budgets on 1 December and there will be a Welsh launch on 12 December. On 7 October, I chaired a Celtic Connections Consortium seminar in Brussels on 'climate change’s impact on our shores—meeting the challenges posed by extreme weather conditions’, and held a series of meetings with commission officials and Members of the European Parliament. Pre-consultation work on the national energy efficiency and savings plan is well advanced. There has been progress on developing structural funds programmes and a low carbon building programme pilot scheme focused on fuel poverty, which will provide practical support to those taking action on climate change. Commission members also provided updates about the work under way in their sectors and organisations.

The commission considered a report by the Sustainable Development Commission on the work of the Climate Change Commission in its first year. In response to the recommendations, I have agreed to invite the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, and the Chair of the Sustainability Committee in the National Assembly for Wales, or a representative, to join the commission. I have also asked the SDC to work with representatives of land management interests to ensure that there is appropriate representation from that sector on the commission. Land management and wider rural interests are a key sector for action on climate change, and that is why my colleague Elin Jones, Minister for Rural Affairs, is considering establishing a rural forum on climate change to provide a focus for engagement with the sector on this issue. It was also confirmed that other Ministers and officials will be involved in the work of the commission as appropriate.

The SDC report made a number of other recommendations aimed at making the commission and its sub-groups more effective. These were endorsed, and it was agreed that an additional commission meeting would be scheduled for January 2009 to work through how to put these recommendations into practice. This meeting would also carry out some detailed work on the emerging programme of action to deliver the Assembly Government’s climate change targets. Following its consideration of the SDC report, the commission confirmed its role in building consensus, including through exploring scenarios for different levels of emission reduction, providing leadership for each sector and informing Assembly Government policy. The commission received a presentation from Dr Chris West, director of the UK climate impacts programme, which raised the profile of adaptation issues on the agenda of the commission ahead of a joint session with the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution focused on adaptation in December.

Two of the Assembly Government’s climate change champions, Tom Williams and Ashley Yarrow, participated in the meeting and gave an update on the activities that they had undertaken and their experiences of being champions. The 2009 champions’ competition was launched on 13 October.

The commission received an update on the SDC-led work on buildings and climate change, an overview of the responses to the energy route-map consultation and the pre-consultation work on the national energy efficiency and saving plan. The commission received a presentation on the Assembly Government climate change campaign. The campaign was endorsed and commission members provided useful suggestions for its development. The commission noted that Energy Saving Week was towards the end of October and made a commitment that it would calculate its carbon footprint and make at least one change to reduce it and encourage others to do the same.

The commission agreed a working definition for the 3 per cent emission reduction target and agreed to complementary work on developing consumption measures, endorsing recommendations from the research, methodologies and economics sub group. The commission noted some of the broad themes emerging from work across the Assembly Government to work out how the 3 per cent target will be delivered. The commission agreed that it would adopt a scenario-based approach in considering a programme of action to deliver the Assembly Government’s targets, exploring options to deliver 3 per cent, 6 per cent and 9 per cent reductions. This would inform the Assembly Government’s policy and enable the commission to suggest further action where appropriate.

The commission continues to endorse the Welsh Assembly Government’s commitment to the 3 per cent target, but it also recognises that it may need to recommend larger reductions in the future. The next two meetings of the commission will be key in shaping the content of the Assembly Government’s programme on climate change and will be informed by the publication of the UK Committee on Climate Change’s advice on the carbon budget on 1 December.

Last week, I participated in the first world summit of regions in St Malo, Brittany, which focused on climate change. I signed a letter of intent with the UN development programme to participate in a pilot to assist African regional governments to draw up their own climate change action plans. I will be issuing a written statement on that matter later this week.