3. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what his priorities will be for achieving net zero and a just transition? OQ60923

Diolch, Luke. A just transition to net zero is central to the work of this Government and in the delivery of our current climate plans. We will ensure that workers and the communities of Wales reap the economic and social benefits in areas such as energy, circular economy, housing and transport.

Thank you for the response.

I will take this opportunity to congratulate you on your new post. This is the first opportunity that I have had.

The need for a just transition and the decarbonisation of our economy is the defining issue of this decade, and it will be the defining issue of the next decade as well—and an issue that is going to require a lot of cross-portfolio collaboration. On the theme of collaboration, I would be interested to understand what conversations you have had with the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh language on fostering new energy systems, with energy being one of those key pillars to decarbonisation. What do you see as the immediate challenges spanning both remits?

Thank you very much. Not only with that Cabinet Secretary but with other Cabinet Secretaries as well, we are having those discussions. Even though the portfolios have been reconfigured, climate change remains in my title because we are still driving ahead on the carbon budgets. We are are in carbon budget 2, and we are looking ahead to carbon budget 3. We know the challenges ahead of us. We will seek to deliver on them with real ambition and with real purpose.

That means that all of my Cabinet colleagues here will all be having discussions, but within their own portfolio areas, and within their own funding streams. With transport, with housing, with local government and everything, we all seek to deliver on our journey to net zero. But in doing that, our focus, Luke, is going to be on what we have always stated, from the First Minister's manifesto commitment, but also long-held: that idea of green prosperity.

We undersell this sometimes—the idea that we genuinely can create green jobs. Those green jobs will be in energy and what we do, and will be in some of those exciting opportunities. But they will also be in the stuff that we were talking about just now. They will be in things such as what we need to do with farm advisory services and Farming Connect, and green natural infrastructure and the army of people we will need to do that as well.

So, I think that, in seeking to move to a just transition, if we are serious about this, we look at every aspect of every portfolio and say, 'Where can we deliver those additional jobs and economic opportunities for every single part of Wales and in every single sector?' That's challenging, but it's exciting, and what will drive it across Government is our need to hit those carbon budget targets. We've committed to them here in Wales, and we will deliver them. We put people right at the front of it. People and communities are front and centre of everything we do.

Reaching net zero, obviously, is very important. I understand your continued commitment to that in your new role, and I think we're all grateful for that. But moving towards that requires a transport network and an infrastructure that is green and clean, and that is not only in public transport, that's private-use vehicles as well. Integral to that, obviously, as we move towards the ban of sale of petrol and diesel cars, is that infrastructure in terms of electric vehicle charging points right across the country. The Senedd's climate change committee, though, in the past, has said, and I quote, that 

'the lack of progress on EVs is unacceptable.'

I know the First Minister yesterday talked about the importance of green growth in his statement, but there's not been enough evidence of growth in this particular industry. So, how are you going to work, as the new Minister responsible for climate change, with the Minister for transport to ensure that we've got that modern network, that modern infrastructure that we need, not only for today, but for the future as well?

Thank you for the question. You are right; if we look at the biggest sectors that can provide contribution towards that net-zero pathway, it will be transport, and it will be housing and so on, but it'll also be agriculture, as we were discussing earlier on. But transport is absolutely key, and I know the Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Transport will have been listening to the points that you've made. It does indeed involve that transition away from polluting forms of private transport, without a doubt, but it's not the entire panacea. We need to make sure that that network of charging points is there, and we are investing in that, with partners, to make sure that that happens. 

But it's also what we do with the bus fleet, it's also what we do with trying to have that modal shift of people onto public transport—buses and trains. And it's also to do with the often cinderella thing, although we've massively increased the investment; we've quadrupled investment from the Welsh Government in active travel. Some people will never take to a bike—even an electric bike and so on—but many more people are now. And if you look at the way that European cities have reinvented themselves around active travel, as well as less carbon-intensive forms of travel, it's all of these pulled together. I know my colleague the Cabinet Secretary will have heard you. I'll certainly be meeting with him, and others, to discuss their contribution towards this. But I welcome the support, genuinely. It will be private transport decarbonisation, but it'll also be those wider modal shifts along—I hate to say it—that inverted triangle of the sustainable transport hierarchy, with active travel right at the top.