Wellbeing requires a consultation between all stakeholders
THE CBI has taken the highly unusual step of speaking publicly about our concerns with the Future Generations Commission’s interpretation of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFGA).
This includes issues the commission (headed by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales Sophie Howe) have chosen to pursue, and the manner in which they have been pursued.
We raise these observations in an attempt to find a solution and a common way forward, and not cause division.
The CBI in Wales welcomes the WFGA. Many businesses have worked very hard to reduce their environmental footprint and put in place long-term plans for sustainable growth.
These activities were taking place in the private sector long before the WFGA came into being. Of course, the private sector, like the public and third sectors, is not perfect but only by working together can progress be made.
The private sector’s interest in resource efficiency and climate change goes back many years.
In 2007, the CBI published a landmark report entitled Climate Change: Everyone’s Business.
At the time, the report was welcomed by third-sector organisations, including, for example, Friends of the Earth.
The report recognised the need for UK action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our threepronged approach called for consumers to drive the change; government to set the framework and work with other countries to build international agreement; and business to invest and deliver.
In 2011, CBI Wales launched another report, Greening the Dragon: A Blueprint For A Green Economy, which highlighted the amount of work already being done by Welsh firms to be more sustainable, and it called on the Welsh Government to do much more to harness the opportunities of the global low-carbon goods and services market.
As founding members of the Climate Change Commission for Wales, we contributed over many years to drive the debate forward and identify areas where government could help businesses tangibly reduce Welsh CO2 emissions and invest in adaptation measures.
Wales is very lucky to have many experts in resource efficiency – some are world experts. The forerunner to the Future Generations Commission, the Sustainable Development Commission, understood this, engaged and listened.
If the remit of the new commission has changed, we need to reflect on whether it has changed for the better. We cannot hope to achieve progress if we don’t all come together to proactively seek to identify common ground and work together. Indeed, we understand “collaboration” is one of the WFGA’s five ways of working. How can its seven wellbeing goals be reached if insufficient collaboration has been undertaken by the commission itself?
A few months ago, the CBI published another report, Stepping Up To The Challenge, a plan to maximise the opportunity of the lowcarbon transition.
We are keen to work with any interested party in driving this agenda forward in Wales and harness the opportunities for growth and employment of the transition to a low-carbon economy, as we believe the Welsh Government should be doing more in this space.
In regard to the WFGA, we need to ensure all seven wellbeing goals are addressed and evaluated in a reasonable and proportionate way.
The Act makes it clear the listed public bodies must work to achieve all of the goals, not just one or two. This is not easy, and that is why engagement, consultation and first-class evidence-based policy is essential.
One of the seven WFGA goals is for “a prosperous Wales”.
Its full definition is: “An innovative, productive and low-carbon society which recognises the limits of the global environment and therefore uses resources efficiently and proportionately (including acting on climate change); and which develops a skilled and welleducated population in an economy which generates wealth and provides employment opportunities, allowing people to take advantage of the wealth generated through securing decent work.”
The Welsh Government’s business case for the M4 relief road makes clear both the pressing need for the project and its economic impact.
These deliberations are made using well-established criteria. The Commission rejects the Government’s case for the relief road.
Sadly, there is not enough room here to evaluate each aspect of the Commission’s evidence, but it is our view that it demonstrates insufficient evidence of an assessment of the project against the goal of “a prosperous Wales”.
One point that is worth highlighting is the Commission’s assertion that autonomous vehicles will mean existing infrastructure can accommodate higher traffic volumes.
While views differ, this conclusion appears to go against a Princeton study that found that the risk-averse nature of the software autonomous vehicles use will actually lead to a reduction in road capacity, thereby slowing traffic flows, for many years.
The failure, in our view, to engage regularly and meaningfully with the CBI and the private sector is partly an explanation for the nature of the Commission’s intervention.
While the Commission would have likely remained opposed it, we believe the opportunity for a variety of stakeholders to comment would have helped to refine and improve the Commission’s submission. That is the kind of civic discourse a democratic society ought to aspire to.
We look forward to meeting with the Commission shortly and identifying a proactive and shared agenda to continue work on a lowcarbon, resource-efficient and prosperous Wales where the next generation has better and more abundant opportunities than we currently enjoy.