Written Statement - Climate Change commission for Wales 7 / 8 October meeting

I am pleased to report on the most recent meeting of the Climate Change Commission for Wales, held on 7 / 8 October.   

The meeting was preceded by the launch of the Climate Change Strategy for Wales. The First Minister, Carwyn Jones and I were joined by more than 150 guests at Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth to launch the Strategy.  Among the guests was Steve Howard CEO of the Climate Group and Professor John Harries the Chief Scientific advisor to the Welsh Assembly Government.

At the Commission meeting I welcomed Peter Davies as the new Chair of the Climate Change Commission for Wales following a public appointments process.

The morning session of the Commission meeting began with a presentation by Luc Bas from the Climate Group. The presentation outlined the work of the Climate Group, in particular their focus on technologies and the specific role of the states and regions alliance. Luc highlighted some of the Climate Group’s key work streams which contribute to the Group’s vision and mission ‘A clean revolution’.   

A major focus of the meeting was a discussion about the Commission’s future role, remit and forward work programme following the appointment of an independent Chair.  Commission members were asked what needed to be included in their forward work programme.

Key themes that emerged on what the Commission need to do were:

• Stimulate debate about climate change
• Arrange or participate in specific events to discuss climate change
• Work on breaking down barriers between public, third and business sectors
• Create closer links with the UK Committee on Climate Change

The Commission also identified some practical actions that needed to be taken, these included:

• Carrying out a review of membership
• Ensuring access to resources and training to build the capacity of the Commission

The Commission will conclude its discussions on its future work at an additional meeting in December.

At the session on the 8 October, there was an opportunity for Commission members to provided updates on action in their sectors and organisations. There was also an opportunity for me to update members on the activity taking place by the Welsh Assembly Government to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change.  

In my update, I explained some of the consequences of decisions taken by the UK Government in relation to the Sustainable Development Commission which I have previously reported to Plenary.  I also took the opportunity to outlined our work to put in place new arrangements that bring together the work that we fund to enable delivery on sustainable development.  

My update included:

• The launch of the second Climate Change Challenge at the beginning of August. The Pontrobert Community Centre near Llanfair Caereinion, Powys, Bridges Community Centre in Monmouth and Bloomfield Community Centre in Narberth, Pembrokeshire are taking part in the Climate Change Challenge 2010.
• The launch of a package of support on 18 August to enable businesses to secure microgeneration certification accreditation.  The support will take the form of interest-free loans from the Carbon Trust to access accreditation and the support of development officer based at the Energy Saving Trust.
• The boiler scrappage scheme in Wales closed at the start of July after all the £500 vouchers were allocated and redemption rates for the vouchers have been high.
• An update on the process of procuring a delivery partner for the new all-Wales fuel poverty scheme which will replace the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme from April next year.  The competitive dialogue process that we have adopted for the procurement is enabling us to build the delivery model with bidders and will result in a significantly better outcome than a traditional procurement. 
• The procurement exercise for the framework contract to resource the delivery of the behaviour change element of the Climate Change Strategy has generated significant interest and we are moving towards contract award on the two main lots and progressing the other lots. 
• The Sustainable Development Indicators report for 2010 was published at the end of August. For the first time, and in line with what was agreed at Cabinet in January 2010, we reported on the wellbeing of Wales as one of out five headline indicators of sustainable development.  The indicators were integrated into the Sustainable Development Annual Report that was discussed in Plenary and we will not be looking to develop the indicators of progress on the central organising principle agreed in that debate.
• A workshop on the Climate Change Risk Assessment took place in Cardiff on 21 September.  The workshop focused on the impacts and consequences important to Wales and was attended by over 50 stakeholders.
• A major research project that will enable us to develop a comprehensive behavioural segmentation model for pro-environmental behaviours in Wales is underway. This will result in a significant enhancement of our knowledge of attitudes in Wales and will provide an invaluable evidence base for targeting engagement activity and programme design.
• Professor Nick Pidgeon presented research work on Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Energy Futures with Assembly Government staff and representatives of organisations interested in climate and energy related behaviour change activity.  I want to see us enabling more of this type of knowledge exchange and evidence sharing events – and using that evidence to stimulate debate and action.  
• I also drew the Commission members attention to the announcement on the 8 September that  Bangor University’s SEACAMS (Sustainable Expansion of the Applied Coastal and Marine Sectors) project had been given the go-ahead following £12.6m from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Assembly Government. 
• I was also delighted to meet communiversity, the leaders of a number of inspirational projects across Wales – including the winners of the Low Carbon Community Challenge, NESTA and British Gas Green Streets projects. The leaders are all driven by the same desire to enhance the wellbeing of their community and to contribute to this much bigger agenda on climate change. This group offered to take responsisbility for delivering a proportion of the 3% target and were willing to work with us to identify specific action communities could deliver equivalent to 0.5% of the target. We will be working with them to properly quantify their contribution.

Sebastian Giraud gave an insightful presentation on his work as a Climate Change Champion. Sebastian highlighted his EcoTastic project which is a schools-based competition promoting action on climate change that runs alongside the curriculum and is delivered during registration. The project involves teachers and pupils, in exciting and innovative ways, builds teacher pupil relations, encourages team working, and creates friendly competition.

Paul Allen gave a brief presentation on the latest Zero Carbon for Britain report entitled ‘A New Energy Strategy’. The report looked at integrating and decarbonising key sectors, and also looked at ways of trying to get people to think differently about energy security. 

The next Commission meeting will be held in Cardiff on 14 December.