, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 3
Thank you very much. So, what are your views on the Welsh Government's decision to set air quality targets in regulations rather than on the face of the Bill? Shall I come to you first, Matthew?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Okay. So, what are the changes you'd want to see that would give it more purpose in actually changing behaviour and changing policy?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Okay. Joe Carter.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Yes, local air quality management. Is it accurate and do we use it extensively enough?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Thank you very much. So, how effective is the current local air quality monitoring regime? Does it take account of the latest scientific research? And does it tell us accurately enough the things that should be top of our list for action?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Another argument we heard from the professor from Swansea University was that one year won't necessarily give you a realistic picture—it might be a COVID year, or the timescale of actually getting this thing geared up, so that five years gives you a more…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
One of our previous witnesses talked about the need for a collaborative approach and that simply putting information out there isn't sufficient.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
But it's also about making the evidence that is out there more accessible to the general public, to engage them in the process of change. Simply reporting it and people like us all reading it isn't going to be sufficient to get the change. Sarah Jones, what…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
Yes, I do, actually. We've talked quite a lot about what we know about—'we' the experts in the room as opposed to the general public—local air quality monitoring. The general public—. It's not the talking point at the bus stop or outside the school, and I…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 2
I just wanted to come back to the social equity issues, because it isn't just—. The people who live in these areas of very high vehicle congestion don't choose to live there. They're all people who've been allocated spaces there, or they can't afford to live…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
Yes.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
Well, we'd have local authorities, obviously, because they're the obvious—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
Idling is one of the most irritating activities, because it seems completely unnecessary to me. But are the powers in this Bill strong enough to actually stop people doing it?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
The major problem is that people don't choose to live in these areas of high congestion; they're all people who have no choices—homeless accommodation—and the people doing the polluting don't live there themselves.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
A lot of our children are already quite well informed, because I've seen in some of the schools in Cardiff Central, which is obviously a local air quality disaster zone, that they have these monitors that you can see, and they're quite easy to interpret. But…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
The Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Bill - evidence session 1
I understand the importance of constraining policy makers in the powers they have, but my concern about this Bill is that it's setting the bar so high in terms of it has to be objectively measured and it has to specify a date by which the standard is to be…
, Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee Report—'Decarbonising the private housing sector'
Thank you very much. One of the things that would enable us to go faster would be if we changed the regulations around air-source heat pumps to enable those of us living in terraced properties, particularly in urban areas, to have the advantages of air-source…
, Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee Report—'Decarbonising the private housing sector'
I fully acknowledge the good work that has been done in social housing in Wales, and I appreciate that the Welsh Government is pretty hard up for cash, with £1 billion missing from its budget this year. I look forward to ‘Living Well in Low-Carbon Homes’…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
The Net Zero Wales plan was published 18 months ago, so I'm concerned that the decarbonisation implementation group is only now looking at strategic themes. When will you be able to provide clarity to people who are renting privately, or asset-rich and income…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
We certainly do. We have a climate emergency and we have a massive skilled workforce that needs to be applying their skills to all the new industries that we need.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
Where does the net-zero skills plan sit in all this, then, because that's the Welsh Government's proposal of how we're going to meet the massive skills gaps that are popping up all over the place? Is this a coherent plan as far as you're concerned?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
You talked about the options being unclear, Shavanah, in terms of what should we be upskilling our workforce for in the future. What's your assessment of the coherence of the clean growth plan of the south Wales industrial cluster, because they talk about a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
So, you think all the blockages on this modernisation is just the absence of the Treasury opening up its purse.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
It is, but you are obviously involved.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Decarbonisation of the steel industry in South Wales - evidence session with Trade Unions
But what about the diversification that Tata could be doing on its own land? Why are we not seeing huge arrays of renewable energy popping up next door to where the steel production operations are happening? Because that's a way of them generating their own…
