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Plaid Cymru urge Welsh Gov to ‘catch up’ on nature emergency

30 Jun 2021 2 minute read
Delyth Jewell. Picture by the National Assembly (CC BY 2.0)

Plaid Cymru has urged the Welsh Government to “catch up” on the nature emergency.

The party’s spokesperson for tackling Climate Change, Delyth Jewell MS, has said it must commit to legally binding biodiversity targets before it’s too late.

In a Senedd debate due to take place today Plaid will also call on the Senedd to formally recognise the crisis by declaring a Nature Emergency.

Jewell says that the threat to biodiversity was one of the greatest threats facing Wales and that it was “high time” action was taken to tackle the continued decline of biodiversity.

The post-2020 global biodiversity framework is due to be set at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in October this year, and Plaid view this as an opportunity for the Senedd and the Welsh Government to introduce nature recovery targets.

‘Emergency’ 

Delyth Jewell MS said: “There is a nature emergency that coexists alongside the climate emergency, and that unless we tackle these crises together, we will not overcome either.

“But whilst we have targets for carbon emissions, there is no corresponding mechanism for nature: No targets to track how we will limit and reverse biodiversity loss.

“By investing in nature, we can boost our economy and create thousands of jobs. If we really want to achieve a Green Recovery here in Wales, we need to invest in the recovery of our habitats and our species and create the green workforce able to fulfil our nature recovery targets.

“It took a motion brought by Plaid Cymru for Wales to declare a climate emergency –

“I now urge the Welsh Government to catch-up on the threat to our continually declining biodiversity, act immediately to reverse biodiversity decline, and to ensure nature’s recovery by introducing legally binding nature recovery targets before it’s too late.”


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Dafydd Evans
Dafydd Evans
2 years ago

Agree that great urgency needs to be given on the ecological emergency .. but Plaid need to realise that it cant have its bun and eat it! It cant cosy up to Welsh agriculture one minute and come out with these proclamations the next when its been intensification of agricuuture over last 40 yrs that has been the main driver of our ecological crisis. Literally thousands of farm slurry spills into rivers, removal of hedgerows, dissapearance of ponds and wild flower meadows in favour of silage production. Huge applications of fertilizers to land, cattle kept in doors 24/7,365, farms with… Read more »

Jack
Jack
2 years ago

This article isn’t wrong but it’s a bit rich coming from the same Plaid politicians who voted against restrictions on farmers dumping slurry into rivers earlier this year.

The agricultural industry is largely responsible for the loss of biodiversity in Wales.

hdavies15
hdavies15
2 years ago
Reply to  Jack

I suggest you revisit the info on water course pollution incidents. You will find that Dwr Cymru’s frequent inability to manage sewerage spillages is up there with the worst cases and that’s often down to the way urbanised communities use sewers to dispose of waste that is non compliant. Good habits start in the home, and grown up people do not expect someone else to clean up after them all the time.

Chris
Chris
2 years ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Yeah that’s not true. DCWW tend to handle “sewerage spillages” better than many other authorities. There are in fact very few from DCWW. Slurry dumping is a deliberate act, straight into a river, not through DCWW infrastructure and policing of this falls under NRW. In the home, dumping nappies, wet wipes and fat down the drains is the biggest problem and pretty difficult to police for anyone.

Jack
Jack
2 years ago

Good to see progress here. Hopefully Plaid will also support the government’s agriculture bill given that farming is the main driver of Welsh biodiversity loss. We need to get beyond Plaid voting to permit agricultural pollution and to give farmers a handout for owning land.

Anna Bin Iaith
Anna Bin Iaith
2 years ago

Only when we are free of the English can we put into place our vision for a better agriculture.

Until them, we will process their waste from the food we give them!

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