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Senedd Members warned Wales is playing catch-up after the Welsh Government took more than seven years to bring forward a bill to plug gaps in environmental protections.

Delyth Jewell expressed concerns about delays in introducing the environment bill which aims to reverse nature loss, with one in six species now at risk of extinction in Wales.

Plaid Cymru’s shadow climate secretary said: “For years, Wales has been behind the curve and we’ve been an unfortunate exception in terms of environmental governance.”

Gaps arising from Brexit left Wales with the weakest environmental governance structures in western Europe, according to the Wales Environment Link charity.

The bill would establish the “long-awaited” Office of Environmental Governance Wales (OEGW) to check public bodies’ environmental performance and hold them to account. Similar bodies were set up in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England in 2021.

‘Hellscape’

In 2018, then-climate secretary Julie James committed to legislation to address the governance gap at the “first opportunity”. Ministers declared a climate emergency in 2019 before appointing an interim environmental protection assessor in 2021.

Ms Jewell, who represents South Wales East, told the Senedd: “At last, I welcome the fact that we’re now bridging that gap… the need for targets for nature is clear.”

She said: “All of us will want to counter the risk of fine words and good intentions paving the way to a hellscape devoid of those things that make our world diversified, rich and beautiful.”

If passed by the Senedd, the bill would establish a framework for targets on biodiversity and enable the public to challenge public authorities on environmental issues.

Ms Jewell supported calls for headline targets and timeframes, with much of the detail – which is not included in the bill itself – set to follow in regulations.

‘Too little, too late’

Giving a statement on June 3 introducing the “landmark, forward-thinking” bill, Labour’s Huw Irranca-Davies said: “It has never been more important to restore nature, mitigate climate change and preserve the natural environment for future generations.

“This legislation forms a critical part of our future approach to doing just that.”

The Deputy First Minister, who is also climate secretary, told Senedd Members: “We may be behind other UK nations but actually we’ve been able to learn the lessons from them.”

Janet Finch-Saunders, the Conservatives’ shadow climate secretary, warned Wales has been lagging on setting biodiversity targets. “This is, I feel… too little, too late,” she said.

She told the Senedd that Wales ranks 224th out of 240 countries on the National History Museum’s biodiversity index, saying: “We’re amongst the lowest 10% in the world”.

‘Rushed through’

Ms Finch-Saunders called for a sense of urgency from ministers as she expressed concerns about a lack of detail in the “very vague” environment bill.

“I would like to encourage the cabinet secretary to ensure that this bill is not rushed through because you’ve left it rather late,” she said.

Mr Irranca-Davies explained the bill goes further in some areas than in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, citing the example of a power to enforce urgent compliance.

“It’s not that we’ve been doing nothing,” he stressed, pointing to planned changes to farming subsidies, clean air legislation, nature restoration grants, planning and transport reforms.

But he accepted: “We do now need to proceed with urgency… to refine and craft this.”

‘Unforgivable’

His Labour colleague Jenny Rathbone said: “We do need to get on with it,” warning Wales has, for example, been without a body to prosecute builders failing to install boxes for swifts.

Conservative Samuel Kurtz warned the bill could serve as a “backdoor” to further obligations on farmers of Wales – even for those who opt out of the sustainable farming scheme.

Mr Irranca-Davies replied: “Yes, the targets will be binding… for a long time, a wide range of stakeholders have called – in fact we heard it from your own benches – [on us] to get on with this… and yes, of course, it’s binding.”

He said the environmental body would be established two weeks after the bill receives royal assent but cautioned “it will take time to put in place” due to appointments and logistics.

In 2023, the Senedd’s climate committee – which Mr Irranca-Davies was then a member of – warned it would be an “unforgivable failure” if the body was not fully operational in 2026.