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The Welsh Government today published ‘Prosperity for All: A Low Carbon Wales’, bringing together 100 policy measures aimed at tackling climate change.
CAT welcomes the publication of this plan, and supports many of the measures aimed at creating a prosperous low carbon economy.
However, we urge the Welsh Government to show greater ambition and move to enshrine a target of net zero emissions into law, as demanded by the climate science.
CAT Chief Executive Kim Polgreen said:
“The evidence is clear that to avoid dangerous levels of climate change we need to reach net zero emissions globally by 2050. Wales can show real leadership and take responsibility for historic emissions by setting a zero carbon target for 2040.”
We welcome the plan’s coordinated cross-sector approach, and support measures for increasing electricity from renewables, retrofitting Wales’s existing housing stock to make it more energy efficient, and expanding woodland cover.
However, we would like to see more emphasis on dietary changes that could help support a more ambitious target, as outlined in CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain research and reinforced by the recent EAT-Lancet report on food, diet and health.
CAT’s research also shows that we can get to net zero emissions without relying on new nuclear, a position supported in Wales by the IWA ‘Reenergising Wales’ report, published last week.
We also welcome the announcement of a review of the skills gaps for jobs supporting decarbonisation – something that CAT is in a unique position to support through its Graduate School of the Environment and vocational short courses, which provide knowledge and skills needed to help tackle the climate challenge, from renewable energy and green building to sustainable food and behaviour change for sustainability.
CAT Chief Executive Kim Polgreen said:
“Tackling climate change requires radical changes in almost every area of society. Now more than ever we need to develop skills for the future in order to avoid dangerous climate breakdown, to enable us to adapt to change and build community resilience.
“The Centre for Alternative Technology has ambitious plans to expand our higher education offer, develop a Further Educations offer in conjunction with other educational providers, and, in conjunction with the sector skills partnership and local employers, develop an approach to skills delivery which meets the needs of Wales in the transition to a low carbon economy.”
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