Sharing the journey

Julie James, Minister for Climate Change, on leading the Welsh Government’s plans to deliver net zero.

People in Wales have seen the effects of the climate emergency - around the world and at home, and there’s a greater awareness now more than ever of the dangers climate change brings. I believe it is the job of government to make sure all sectors of our society, know what to do in terms of their behaviour and their agendas, to get us on the path to net zero. in the world in a short period of time. That’s not because we enforced it. It was because we brought people along the journey with us.

There are some who still haven't made modifications to their behaviour as far as reducing their carbon footprint, but our surveys show they're in the minority in Wales.

And we need to accelerate the pace of change. We’ve twice as much to do in the next 10 years as we did in the last 30.

Our immediate priorities include working alongside the big players - the electricity generators - to green the grid and to leave behind fossil fuels. Wales is particularly reliant on gas and we need reduce this dramatically.

Protecting our industries as much as possible in the transition is vital. Our steel industry for instance; it’s highly efficient already, but we need to help it move to greener fuels.

The Welsh Government is here to help with behaviour-change; telling the story we need to share, that allows every individual and organisation in Wales understand how they can best play their part in the journey.

Government’s job is there to put the platforms in place to encourage people do the right thing and to discourage them from doing the wrong thing. And we’ve done it before.

Our recycling record went from one of the worst in the world, to the third best There may be some who say, “Well, we're too small, with three million people. What difference can we possibly make when we have giant countries that are not changing their behaviour?” But that minority are wrong.

Wales is a small but smart nation. Our academic research centres are helping countries around the world meet the challenges of climate change. And by our actions, we influence others.

We have introduced programmes that allow people to make their homes more insulated and energy efficient, and to move away from gas heating. How to solve the poor housing/low insulation swap to less carbon-intensive heating systems is one of the big global challenges, and Wales is involved in finding the best solution.

We need to change the way that we look at travel. We need to green our cars and move to electric and non-fossil fuel, but it's much more than that.

We need to look at new models of transport such as shared car schemes, and further encourage home and local working, to reduce congestion and improve air quality. We need to get better at public transport and active travel - to learn from countries like Germany and its regional governments on how they are managing such transformations.

It’s all about helping people to change their behaviours, making it easier to do the right thing.

Marine energy growth is high on our agenda. The next big renewable project will be floating wind in the Celtic Sea and we are well-placed to take advantage in this area. We are determined to ensure our ports are in a position to grasp this far-reaching opportunity.

What do we want out of COP26? We want all countries to embrace the under 1.5C warming threshold seriously. Wales is part of an alliance of the UK devolved administrations, encouraging the UK Government to go further with its targets. We are a member of the Under2 Coalition - the climate agreement between subnational governments globally, which commits to limiting emissions to 80-95% below 1990 levels, and below 2 annual metric tons per capita by 2050 – the level of emission reduction necessary to limit global warming to under 2°C by the end of this century.

The road may be untravelled. There will be obstacles, but Wales will not be found wanting on the journey we must all make to a sustainable future.