, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
—is not only the potential it has for those biodiversity sequestration gains and so on, but what really strikes me is the multiplier of volunteer time, of people who are really committed—really committed. I haven't seen anything like it since I've been…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
The incredible thing about the seagrass network—and I'm also going to keep on saying, 'and saltmarshes'—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
I know.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
So, we've worked very closely with the seagrass network. I visited them myself and have spoken with the members. They're doing incredible work and there is incredible potential within seagrass in terms of marine biodiversity restoration and a range of nature…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Listen, I think you should always be concerned, both terrestrially and particularly in the marine environment, because I think the marine environment is one that we've come to, in more recent decades, to try and get an understanding of what the state of the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, Joyce, we're getting on with it. We're doing it. So, we've announced already a new call-for-actions window in—. We announced back in March last year a new call for actions for the 2024 MPA management action plan. Hopefully we'll get lots of responses for…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Right. No, because we do have local authorities that are at different levels, and we continue to work with those local authorities in order to drive their recycling upwards. And we continue to invest in local authorities where we can see they’ve put a very…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
But all the proposals in place to make it happen we're working through now.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
As early as possible in the next Senedd term.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
We are working through the timescale of this. We’ve said, Julie, that one of the welcome things in saying that, now that we recognise there is going to be a different approach in Wales on DRS with reuse, is that it gives us the time to engage with…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
It will, it will. And we recognise that and we've planned for that. So, we'll continue to use the existing Welsh Government resources now from within the circular economy and resource efficiency budget to bring forward our proposals. We'll consult on those…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
So, we have resource internally to actually take that forward. We've been planning for this for a long time.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Very much. So, even though there's a slight reduction in the overall budget there, it's giving that certainty that we're committed to this, as long as we can within the budget setting of this Senedd term there, which takes us up to October 2027 there. But…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, indeed.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
The extension of the Local Places for Nature programme.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
The nature service for Wales is really interesting, because it's an interesting initiative, it's developing—it's still in early stages, but it's developing. We're very interested in it. But it is a good example of an approach being taken that doesn't rely on…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
We hope that partners can work with us on this to minimise any impact. It's important to say there is still significant investment going into Local Places for Nature, and you're right, we all really value this because it does so many things. It's not just the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, we will keep on having that dialogue. We made representations to the previous UK Government, and we had no response, but we'll keep on making those representations about replacement funding. But I think it's important to say that, whilst we would…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
It's not impossible, but there's a fair bit of work to be put into this. In respect of RSPB's call, we can definitely work with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to explore that option of having an early window for some applications for the next round, so it…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, entirely, including the ways of working as well. The great thing about the well-being of future generations Act is it allows us to go through this transformational but constant change, so we have a system-wide shift. Certainly biodiversity was considered…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
No, this is a different sub-group. This is a sub-group of the BIAIG, the budget improvement advisory impact group. They're in the early stages of their work, but their work is focused on a slightly different but very, I think, productive area, which is…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
I think that is very much a cross-Government piece of work, with my Cabinet colleague for housing and local Government, and it is something we're very seized by, because part of the challenge from the infrastructure commission, but a part we're already very…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, they have, and certainly the—. I'll deal with the two of them separately. They both influence. The one that's had greatest immediate impact and impact over the last few years is NRW's report on the long-term investment required for flood defences…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, but we're always going to have to do more is the very honest answer. Everything that we know, everything that we see, all the forecasts, suggest this is not a one-year budget issue. We're going to have to maintain significant levels of funding, which we…
