Written - Sustainable Development Annual Report 2007

One of the founding principles of the Welsh Assembly Government was its core duty to deliver sustainable development. The Welsh Assembly is one of the few administrations in the world to have this statutory duty, and remains committed to this principle as the watchword of this administration’s programme.

‘One Wales’ sets out the Government’s commitment to deliver change in the things that the people of Wales care about: to promote social justice and economic prosperity, to see better education, health and wellbeing, to address climate change, to build a strong and confident nation, and to celebrate our rich and diverse culture.

The principles of sustainable development will help us to achieve all of these together: for example to ensure that our plans for living communities and an improved environment also improve our health and sense of well-being; to take forward our plans for developing everyone’s skills which make their quality of life better as well as their employment; and to celebrate our nation through everything we do.

Sustainability is also about how we use our resources to do this. Climate change shows what will happen if we carry on living unsustainably. We need to protect and manage our resources – our energy, air, water, biodiversity and soils – much better over the coming years to tackle this and to ensure that we have an environment of which we can all be proud.

The Assembly Government has recently published its Annual Report on progress on Sustainable Development, laid before the National Assembly for Wales on 4 March 2008. This sets out our achievements against the Sustainable Development Action Plan for the financial year 2006/7. It shows that we are making good progress in key areas:

We are beginning to Live Differently:

• 80% of the energy in the Assembly’s core administrative estate comes from renewables. The 57 largest NHS sites in Wales are using zero carbon rated green tariffs to supply their grid electricity. This building itself achieved a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating and won the Sustainability Award at the RICS Awards 2006.

We are demonstrating Leadership and Delivery:

• The WLGA, funded by us, have published the Local Authority Standard and frameworks on sector areas which provide practical guidance on delivering sustainable development within Local Authorities. We are working with the WLGA to look in the next period at how these are being used and the principles implemented;
• Our ‘Wales for Africa’ Framework is contributing towards international development and addressing emergencies, reflecting not only our statutory obligations, but also our duty as an international citizen. We are looking for Wales to become a Fair Trade Nation.

We are Making our Money Talk:

• Since 2003, Value Wales have put in place guidance, tools, training and resources for both public and private sectors to promote and implement sustainable procurement. The work is gaining momentum and showing tangible benefits. The amount of Welsh food purchased by the public sector in Wales has increased from 18% to 24% since 2003 supporting local producers and suppliers, reducing food miles and carbon emissions. Local food procurement is a key issue which supports a number of issues within the Welsh Assembly Government’s agenda, so progress here is very welcome.

Finally, we are Measuring our Progress:

• We have confirmed Wales’ ecological footprint as one of our headline indicators of sustainable development. It is currently the lowest footprint of all the UK regions, although it is still at an unsustainable level. We are about to publish a recalculated footprint which will help set us on a pathway for future years.

We do still have a long way to go to a sustainable Wales which really provides an excellent quality of life for our children whilst improving our own. But 2008 is a year of opportunity. We are reviewing the effectiveness of the current Sustainable Development Scheme and the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing will announce the decision on whether to revise or remake the Scheme in Spring this year. We have the opportunity to identify key priority actions from 2008 onwards which will highlight and drive action on a small set of big issues. 2008 offers the prospect of setting out our journey to make Wales more sustainable: in how we do our business, how we manage our environment, and how we work with others to get there. Through this we can deliver real and lasting changes to transform people’s lives across Wales.