The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group has published a series of seven reports. Commissioned by the leaders of the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru through the 2021 Cooperation Agreement, the reports aim to renew and rapidly accelerate Wales’s approach to achieving net zero.
The Group is led and Chaired by the former Welsh Assembly minister for environment and sustainability, Jane Davidson. The seven reports cover a range of topics, including how Wales could meet energy needs while phasing out fossil fuels and enabling the transition to net zero.
The reports cover several areas of marine management, including nature recovery and offshore marine renewable energy. Some of the recommendations from the report include:
- Restore marine habitats, especially native oysters and seagrass meadows, by removing policy and regulatory barriers and providing continuity of funding from 2025, alongside changes in permitting and licensing.
- From 2025 onwards restore marine environments to increase the overall carbon value of marine habitats and species.
- By the end of 2025, set a timeline to achieve the effective management of 30% of Welsh seas, including 10% as fully protected by 2030. Effectively managed and fully protected areas will allow substantial nature recovery, increasing fisheries, providing more marine resilience, and delivering on existing international commitments, including the OSPAR Convention requirement to create an Ecologically Coherent Network of Marine Protected Areas and the Good Ecological Status of Welsh Seas.
- Achieve the cessation of bottom trawling within MPAs by 2030 (as announced in Greece and Sweden), to protect carbon stores and recover marine biodiversity and fisheries.
- Set out a plan to monitor, manage and enforce the protection of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Wales. Presently, only 3% of MPAs have all their features in favourable conservation status.
- By the end of 2025, ensure marine planning considers nature in a strategic, spatial, and holistic manner: directing development to the least environmentally sensitive areas and taking cumulative impacts into account.
- Remove policy and regulatory barriers alongside changes in permitting and licensing to create an enabling space for active marine restoration, by communities, eNGOs, statutory bodies and government. Boost active restoration of coastal and marine habitats by setting out long-term funding continuity from 2025 and seek investment into restoring Blue Carbon habitats through the Welsh Government Marine Fund.
- By 2030, the Crown Estate’s functions in Wales should be completely devolved to a new body that has as its principal aim the reinvestment of all funds in Wales for the long term benefits of the people of Wales in the form of a Wales Wealth Fund.
- We recognise that the process of devolving the Crown Estate may lead to delays within the planning system, the pace of renewable energy deployment in Wales and therefore Wales’ ability to reach net zero by 2035. Seeking devolution by 2030 is an acceptable timeframe to manage this process. It should be supported by an assessment of the impacts of potential delays to renewable deployment and an analysis of the potential economic benefits for Wales.
Jane Davidson, said: “The Senedd was the first national parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency in 2019, pledging to act to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on the Welsh population.
By proposing 10 year pathways to deliver outcomes to keep the population of Wales safer, our work has focused particularly on delivering a nature positive and just transition as required by the unique Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.”
Stan Townsend, Net Zero Challenge Group Secretary, added: “This work offers genuine pragmatism in dealing with challenge of climate change, for Wales and the world. Unlike the so called ‘pragmatism’ that ignores problems, this work acknowledges and confronts them head-on.
Through exploring how to reach net zero earlier than 2050, we’ve highlighted how Wales could accelerate action to address the causes of climate change, while demonstrating that this acceleration shouldn’t wait any longer if we are to seize the benefits, minimise the costs and ensure a just transition.
Importantly, for us, we’ve worked towards a net-zero transition that also addresses related challenges such as public health, inequality, economic stability and the nature crisis. This is what the people of Wales deserve.”
The suite of seven reports from The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group can be found here.