Written question WQ87290

Welsh Ports provide a vital ‘land bridge’ link for freight and goods between the UK and Ireland and we are keen to work with the UK and Irish governments on exploring the possibility of developing green shipping corridors between Welsh and Irish Ports. The UK and Irish Governments agreed to support the establishment of green shipping corridors globally under the Clydebank Declaration launched at COP26 and this would go some way to meeting those commitments. We continue to press UK Government to leverage some of their £206 million UK SHORE, funding programme for Wales to accelerate research into and development of clean maritime technologies and create skilled jobs across for Wales.

We are continuing to develop plans to transition Wales’s taxi and private hire fleet to zero emission vehicles by 2028. This includes discussions with the taxi/PHV sector to better understand business models to get a better impression of potential future support. The limited availability of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and refuelling infrastructure, as well as the inefficiency of using hydrogen in comparison with using electricity directly in battery electric vehicles does mean we have to be cautious in our support, however all options available will be considered.

The commercial roll out of hydrogen fuel cell cars is at a much earlier stage than their battery electric equivalents. Whilst there are hundreds of battery electric vehicle models currently on sale in the UK, the number of hydrogen car and van models is very limited. We continue to engage with the UK Government and groups such as HyCymru and UK H2Mobility to understand the opportunities for decarbonising transport and presented by hydrogen. We have also supported feasibility study work to address the suitability of the more advanced existing manufacturers (OEM) hydrogen vehicle types for potential trialling and deployment in Wales.