Carbon neutral: What is meant by the green economy?
Billions of pounds of money is expected be spent on the green economy whoever wins May's Welsh Parliament elections. But what does that mean?
By Sarah DickinsBBC Wales economics correspondent Is this just wind farms and solar panels, more recycling and people switching to electric cars? Well, it's a bit more than that. One party pledges to spend £6bn on making Wales greener while another has promised £1bn a year. Other parties say they'll build low-carbon homes and will invest in the green economy. Wales has already declared a climate emergency and pledged to be at least 95% carbon neutral by 2050 , with the ambition of becoming a zero waste nation and for the public sector in Wales to be net zero by the end of this decade. So when Senedd election candidates knock on your door ahead of the 6 May ballot, what do they mean when they promise "green jobs" and a Covid "green recovery"? In the drive to reduce our use of carbon because of climate change, companies and governments see "green jobs" as much wider than that. What parties promise for a "green recovery" from the pandemic Green jobs could mean using Welsh timber and wool to build cheap-to-run buildings, like they do at a social enterprise on the Gower peninsula. There they teach green construction skills to patients recovering from brain injury or illness as part of their rehabilitation while also giving them skills for jobs in the future. WALES ALERTS: Get extra updates on BBC election coverage The Down To Earth project, involving young people and adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, has just built six semi-detached homes for a housing association. Welsh timber has been used to build them and they generate their own renewable energy from solar panels on the roof, making them cheap to heat. "The structural frame is all Welsh timber, sheep wool insulation, wood fibre and the internal and external cladding, all Welsh timber," director Mark McKenna said. "It creates jobs in how it's built and the whole supply chain generates green jobs." The renewable energy sector is the industry that jumps to mind in discussions about green jobs. The so-called green economy is growing rapidly and in many traditional sectors companies are radically changing the way they operate and what they make. A lawyer in clean energy and sustainability believes there are big opportunities for Wales as companies have to decarbonise and change their energy use because it will soon become law. "What we have to do as a nation is make sure that those jobs are in Wales and are not created somewhere else," said Michelle T Davies, head of clean energy and sustainability at Eversheds Sutherland. "The key for Wales is making sure that expertise to deliver a whole myriad of decarbonisation services that are going to be needed is provided by Welsh people. "Unless an organisation gets in early in this sector, it's going to be difficult for them to really catch up meaningfully because whoever is building up their CV of first projects is going to be the go-to organisation." WALES ELECTION: THE BASICS What's happening? On 6 May, people will vote to elect 60 Members of the Senedd (MS). The party that can command the support of a majority of MSs will form the Welsh government. Find out more here. What powers does the Senedd have? MSs pass laws on aspects of life in Wales such as health, education and transport - and have some tax powers. Who can vote? Anyone who lives in Wales, is registered to vote and aged 16 or over on 6 May is eligible. You can register to vote online. In Wales there are already companies at the cutting edge of new technologies, like Riversimple in Llandrindod Wells which has developed and built a car powered by hydrogen. It employs 30 people and volunteers will start piloting cars this year using a fuelling station already set up in Abergavenny. The company plans to start full production in 2024 with a team of 220 making the cars on a new site in mid Wales. Founder Hugo Spowers hopes that by 2028 there will be five production sites around Wales and he'd need people to help the "highly-skilled operation of assembling" those cars. "They are very highly cross-skilled teams rather than highly automated assembly lines we are used to today," Mr Spowers said. "We certainly have a lot of expertise in Wales that is suitable for what we are doing but there is definitely some training that is required to get everybody familiar with the application is pursuing here." That is the challenge for whoever forms the next Welsh government. So the green economy and green jobs are catch all phrases that essentially can help Wales achieve it's carbon neutral and waste neutral goal - from wind farm engineer to electric automotive entrepreneur. But crucially, not only does Wales need to win investment to make the most of opportunities as the economy changes radically, it also needs to involve a large-scale training and education programme so the Welsh workforce has the relevant skills.