Sustainability Committee challenges Welsh Government to act now on carbon reduction
The National Assembly’s Sustainability Committee has today (Wednesday March 12) outlined its major recommendations to reduce transport carbon emissions in Wales.
The Committee is conducting an inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales, scrutinising the Welsh Assembly Government on its contribution to the UK carbon reduction targets and proposals for meeting the 3% reduction targets outlined in the One Wales document. The second part of the inquiry, published today, deals with transport carbon reduction.
The report makes four headline recommendations to the Welsh Assembly Government. These are:
The Welsh Assembly Government should take a much stronger lead by placing carbon reduction at the heart of the Wales Transport Strategy and by increasing funding for sustainable transport from around 50 per cent to around 70 per cent of the transport budget, in line with Scotland.
The Welsh Assembly Government should ensure that the National Transport Plan and Regional Transport Plans include specific and measurable objectives to cut carbon emissions and that sufficient funding is provided to the Regional Transport Consortia to be able to deliver these objectives.
The Welsh Assembly Government should review the use of the Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidance (WelTAG) as a matter of urgency to ensure that carbon reduction is the main objective when assessing projects.
The Welsh Assembly Government should conduct a pilot scheme in Wales based on the Sustrans’
TravelSmart
programme to assess its impact, before considering its roll-out across Wales.
Mick Bates AM, Chair of the Committee, said: “People in Wales and beyond, are beginning to realise how important it is to tackle climate change and the role that they as individuals can play in helping to achieve this.
“The Welsh Assembly Government has given a commitment within the One Wales document to reduce carbon emissions in those areas over which it has powers. Against this background, the Committee agreed as our first priority to examine how Wales is performing in reducing its carbon emissions within the context of our national and international targets.
“In our second report into carbon reduction in Wales, we look at transport emissions. We received evidence from a wide range of organisations and we are confident that the evidence we have gathered from a broad variety of perspectives has provided us with robust information on which to base our recommendations. Although these are primarily aimed at the Welsh Assembly Government, we hope that individuals can use them as food for thought in their own efforts to reduce carbon emissions.”
The next part of the Committee’s inquiry deals with carbon reduction by industry and public bodies.