PRESS RELEASE : How Labour-Plaid deal has failed the climate one year one [November 2022]

The Welsh Conservatives have branded the Labour Government’s deal with Plaid Cymru one that fails the climate one year since the Cooperation Agreement was signed.

The accusation lands during Wales Climate Week and comes when Wales’ largest opposition party say the deal, which is heavily focussed on vanity projects, should be scrapped to allow ministers to focus on delivering on people’s priorities.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Climate Change Minister Janet Finch-Saunders MS said:

“Labour and Plaid like to wear their climate credentials on their sleeve, but on closer inspection you’ll find that they only pay lip service to actually doing something productive.

“We are still waiting several years for the single-use plastic ban and for the Clean Air Act – instead, they would rather force farmers into planting trees on 10% of their land in return for basic payments, no matter the state and current use of that land.

“Meanwhile, they are well behind on meetings targets set in their grubby deal and have been inactive in tacking on significant challenges like sewage being pumped into waterways, something which the UK Conservative Government is tackling with strong, new legislation.

“It again shows that we need to follow in England and Scotland’s footsteps to force the Labour Government to deliver like those nations have with an Independent Office for Environmental Protection and Climate Change for Wales.

“The Welsh Conservatives are also committed to kick-starting the Welsh green revolution by putting £150m into a Wales Marine Energy Investment Fund to support marine energy projects, including small-scale hydro schemes to deliver the change Labour and Plaid are incapable of.”

The parties are behind on making progress on the headline policies in the Agreement:

• Flood Review: This is yet to report on flooding in winter 2020/21 preventing any action on recommendations and delivering on flood capital investment and resilience.
• Net Zero: The commitment to commission independent advice to examine potential pathways to net zero by 2035 has not yet begun. It only appointed a Chair in August.
• Net Zero Energy Company: the scope and scale of the company has yet to be determined.