Climate change: Wales 'needs to do twice as much' in next decade

Wales needs to do twice as much on climate change in the next decade "as we've done in the previous 30 years", the climate change minister has said.

Julie James said it was "stretching an ambitious target" but that it would be possible to reach it.

All road schemes in Wales are set to be reviewed and a new law to tackle air pollution will be introduced in this term of the Welsh Parliament.

Wales is aiming to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But a December 2020 report by the Climate Change Committee, which advises governments in the UK, said: "Underlying indicators and the lack of a cohesive, economy-wide strategy for 2050 - at both UK and Welsh government level - mean that Wales was not currently on track for the existing 80% target, let alone net zero."

Speaking on the BBC Politics Wales programme, the newly appointed climate change minister said: "It is possible to do it but it will mean all of us playing our part.

"So, there will be some things that will need to change... but what we need to do is put the conditions in place so that people aren't sacrificing things in order to assist the climate."

Friends of the Earth Cymru has called for a ban on new roads in Wales.

Asked if there should be a ban, Ms James said: "It's tempting, isn't it, to say, 'of course we won't build new roads', but there are really complex issues here around air quality, what traffic routes people take, how many cars on the road and so on."

The Deeside "red route" plan for the A55 in Flintshire includes a new eight-mile (13km) dual carriageway.

The minister said, as part of a new transport strategy, the government "will do a rapid review of all our road schemes and we will do a review of both new road schemes and existing roads".

Cardiff council is set to decide on Thursday whether a key road in the capital will reopen to private vehicles.

Ms James said it was a decision for the Labour-led council but added: "Cardiff did incredibly well in putting active travel routes in across the city [during the height of the pandemic] and we'd very much want to encourage them to continue on that journey."

A Clean Air Act, as promised by Welsh Labour in the Senedd election, is "absolutely" a priority for the government, the minister said.

She added: "We will be bringing that forward.

"We've got a lot of work to do to make sure we've got all the proper infrastructure in place to monitor the air quality and to make sure people do the right things."

A review will also be conducted of the Welsh government's subsidy for the Holyhead to Cardiff air route.

Ms James said she was open-minded about the route's future: "I don't know what the effect of that plane on the environment is because I don't know what people who go on the plane would do if they weren't on the plane.

"So, it's a more complex thing than the simple, plane bad, car good, because if all those people go in to cars we might make the situation worse and I genuinely don't know the answer to that."

The government has announced a moratorium on new biomass plants, many of which have proved controversial.

Asked if it was a mistake to allow existing biomass plants, the minister said: "Well, you know, life is changing, isn't it?

"We didn't know 10 years ago what we know now so we're keeping up with that.

"So, the government is moving forward as we learn new science," she said.

Politics Wales is on BBC One Wales at 10:00 BST on Sundays, and on the BBC iPlayer