Welsh minister mocks Reform over ‘confused’ climate stance
Emily Price
A Welsh Government minister has branded the Reform Senedd group “confused” after one of its MSs called for air conditioning in overheated classrooms while another dismissed climate change targets as “left-wing ideology”.
Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, Llŷr Gruffydd, posted a video to social media on Thursday (July 9) showing clips of two separate questions put to him by Reform Members within minutes of each other during a Plenary session on his portfolio.
In the first part of the video, Caerdydd Penarth MS Joe Martin warned that recent record breaking heatwaves in Wales were affecting the learning environment for pupils in his constituency.
Mr Martin said: “Temperatures in classrooms a few weeks ago reached 39 degrees in my constituency, making attendance impossible.
“So, should the UK and Welsh Governments’ success in reducing our carbon dioxide emissions prove insufficient in stalling global climate change as a result of carbon dioxide emissions from countries like China and India, would the government consider a cost-benefit analysis of intermediate measures such as the installation of air conditioning in schools in Caerdydd Penarth?”
Mr Gruffydd responded saying he thought Wales should move in this direction, adding that one of the “biggest challenges now isn’t keeping people warm, it’s keeping people cool”.
He said: “We need to address this in elderly people’s homes, schools, hospitals et cetera.
“So, it’s very much on our radar and it’s very much something that we need to be thinking more about, because these are the challenges of the future.
“We can’t bury our heads in the sand – it’s coming, and we need to be ready for it.”
Later during Plenary proceedings, Reform’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs, Laura Anne Jones, criticised what she described as the Welsh Government’s “obsession with hitting left-wing ideological climate targets”.
The minister replied: “First of all, on that quip about left-wing ideology, your colleague two questions ago was asking me about heat in schools and the consequences of climate change and the need for air conditioning and improved infrastructure.
“Maybe you should talk to each other about where you stand on this, because I’m hearing very different messages coming from these sides, these benches over here.”
Senedd TV footage showed Ms Jones laughing in response to the minister’s remarks, while Reform’s Chief Whip, Llŷr Powell, heckled from his seat beside her.
Sharing the footage of the exchanges to social media, Mr Gruffydd wrote: “There seems to be some confusion on the Reform benches regarding their approach to climate change.”
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Bit odd calling the climate a left wing ideology. Have to be pretty dim to think that, or its what reform are paid to say. Broken all the records this week and next.
and they really need to pay attention to China and India.
It does encapsulate the different dimensions to denial. The flat out ‘it ain’t happening’ type stuff is still obviously out there. Though I think almost as or if not more common is the ‘it isn’t worth’ or ‘isn’t possible to do anything about’ sort of view point. These are the folk who always jump to China in their statements.