WIREDGOV

Carl Sargeant, the Minister for Natural Resources, has yesterday announced that the Welsh Government will be including statutory climate change targets for Wales as part of its forthcoming Environment Bill.

The Minister is currently looking at how targets can help Wales best achieve progress in tackling climate change whilst also creating a workable and affordable model for the future. The details of the framework for these targets will be put forward as part of the Environment Bill.
 
The Minister said:

“Climate change is perhaps the biggest long-term threat to our future generations and the Environment Bill, as well as the Well-being of Future Generations Bill, provides us with a platform to ensure that we continue to tackle it and increase action across all areas.

“Including statutory targets will allow us to better evaluate progress, provide certainty to help drive investment for a low-carbon economy and confirm achievable targets to work towards, with the overall target of reducing greenhouse emissions by 80% in 2050 against 1990 levels.

“Climate change is not something which should just concern Government, the environmental sector or energy companies – it’s something we should look to tackle across the board to ensure that, as a nation, Wales is doing all it can to take full accountability of it’s global duty.”

The Environment Bill, which is expected to be introduced in the coming months, will legislate to create better ways of looking after Wales’s natural resources whilst helping to drive green growth, improve nature and the environment, as well as tackling climate change.

The announcement follows a statement made by the Minister last week in which he outlined Welsh Government plans to strengthen delivery on tackling climate change, ensuring a clear pathway for decarbonisation in Wales and increased transparency and accountability in delivery.