Article for Natur Cymru
For years I’ve thought that if people understood the need to make changes in their lives to tackle climate change, or any of the other big challenges of our generation, they would do so if they really understood the consequences. I have tried to play my part in creating policy and legislation which will contribute towards more responsible outcomes for people and planet, but the challenges grow and somehow we seem incapable of the appropriate action.
In Wales we have seen some innovation through regulation in the National Assembly eg the dramatic reduction of plastic bags through the introduction of the charge, better recycling outcomes by far than other parts of the UK and most of Europe, and most recently the requirements in the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 for all public services to improve the social, environmental, economic and cultural wellbeing of the people of Wales in everything they do. This is a very welcome and hugely ambitious new law, not least since Welsh Government itself has to comply with its own legislation.
I hope that implementing the Act will lead to better governmental decisions being made in the longer term, focused on real needs. At a basic level, clean air, clean water, shelter, secure energy and food are primary needs. Yet all are under threat. Here in Wales, a largely rural country famed for more sheep than people, we grow only 3% of the fruits and vegetables needed to sustain the Welsh population on less than 0.1% of the land. On that basis, we could meet 100% of our needs on 3% of the land, yet there is as yet no proposal to take such a step. Looking to our basic securities in uncertain times should be at the heart of all policy making.
I believe it is the primary role of governments to look after their people. We have seen governments in the past in the UK, particularly immediately after the 2nd World War, legislate for the whole population with ambitions about full employment, education for all, the establishment of the NHS, protection of natural resources, support for the family through the provision of council housing for all who cannot afford to access it themselves. We have seen similar ambitions for a safe, secure and environmentally responsible EU. This seems to me to be the proper response from governments in a civilized world; to enable their people to have a safe and secure base from which to build a sense of belonging, gain the respect of others and create societies which at ease with themselves.
The challenge of course is immense. A society focused on wellbeing is going to demonstrate very different criteria for success to the traditional consumerist measures of success: respect on the basis of the size of your house, the amount you earn, the car you drive, the number of holidays you take abroad. Such measures of success are unsustainable as they encourage greater consumerism and greater inequality.
So how do we make beneficial changes for people and the planet? Ultimately it comes from action by governments and people and there is some cause to be hopeful even as we look into the BREXIT void. The 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals are supported by 193 countries. John Rawls, the American philosopher, talks about inter-generational justice, where each generation should do unto future generations what they would have wanted past generations to do unto them. In Wales, uniquely, the National Assembly has now passed visionary legislation which aims to do exactly that - the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act. At its launch, the UN said ‘what Wales does today, the world will need to do tomorrow.’
What might success in terms of the new Act look like? A society focused on wellbeing should be safe, (enabling new freedoms for children and adults to engage with nature), secure, (providing for humans’ basic needs re food, clean water and clean air) provide meaningful employment, (in society’s and future generations’ interests) protect our resources, (for the public good on land and in the sea), be moral, (ethical and fair) support families, (to live low carbon, ethical, one planet lifestyles in homes made from the most sustainable materials) and which advocates health and wellbeing for all (physical and mental).
It is with sadness that I write this for the last current edition of Natur, a magazine that has played an excellent role in bringing nature to the attention of the wider Welsh public and one I hope will return very soon. Life is tough everywhere financially at the moment, but I hope the Welsh Government is serious about its sustainability commitments and is prepared to put all its weight and influence behind the ambition of a sustainable nation, and in doing so protect both its people and our planet.