Wales has come up with an extremely unique piece of legislation which seeks to incorporate sustainable development and collaboration across all of its public bodies in order to ensure the wellbeing of its future generations. It looks to improve four main areas: social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing. The Act includes a number of public bodies including the National Health Service, Higher Education Board, National Park Authorities, Arts Council for Wales, The National Library of Wales and Sports Council for Wales. The Act ensures that the public bodies listed in Wales will think about their sustainable development, improve their communities and work better with each other in a preventative approach in order to promote all the four pillars of wellbeing. 

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Wales is geographically, politically and economically an integral part of Great Britain. It was once one of the main global producers of coal and steel that fuelled the industrial revolution. Since the collapse of these industries, Wales has continued to demonstrate its value mainly in trade, agriculture and tourism. Although a small nation with a population of only 3 million people, Wales makes up for it in ambition. Globally, the main measure of success and improved wellbeing has consistently been GDP and economic growth. But can we really say, with unprecedented climate change and extreme global inequality that using GDP as a measure of wellbeing and success has really made people’s lives better? Former United States Attorney General, Robert Kennedy warned of such an obsession with using this measure back in the 1960s, stating that “The problem with GDP is that it measures everything in life except that which makes life worthwhile.” 

Wales has created the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, a pioneering piece of legislation that looks to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales, the first of its kind across the globe. The act places a legal duty on the main public bodies across Wales and its Government to demonstrate how these four pillars of wellbeing have been incorporated into their decision making process. By placing equal importance on all four pillars, the legislation ensures that the country moves away from “business as usual” and begins to make decisions for the longer term. The goals outlined in the act were streamlined in conjunction with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the legislation first came to light as a result of the Rio summit in 2012. The UN has praised the legislation, saying that “what Wales is doing today, we hope the world will do tomorrow.”

The public bodies involved include Welsh ministries, local health boards, the National Health Service (NHS), Fire and Rescue, the natural resources governing body, higher education body and the arts and sports councils.

In order for all public bodies to work together to achieve an overall improvement in wellbeing, in 2016 a country-wide conversation occurred with the general public to come up with sustainable development goals and what they meant to Wales. Seven goals and their definitions were created: more prosperity, more resilience, better health, more equality, cohesive communities, a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language and a globally responsible Wales. This is unique, as never before have development goals been created and defined by those who will be most affected by their implications. 

The leading lady in this challenge is the Wellbeing of Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe. She took up the post in 2016 and has since been called one of the UK’s “Leading Changemakers.” Her interventions have so far created significant changes in line with the act, from major transport schemes, housing and land use policy, education and climate change. Her role is to encourage the government and public bodies to focus on longer term impacts and monitor and assess the extent to which the well-being objectives set by the Public Bodies are being met. 

Since 2016, some changes that have occurred as a result of the act include the biggest contract ever in Wales for rail and metro services. The £5 billion contract was signed by Transport for Wales, after it successfully petitioned to not only create faster, more efficient and newer trains but to also contribute to all seven of the Development Goals. Transport for Wales aims to have all stations achieve carbon neutrality and all Cardiff Valley lines to run electrically by 2023. They have significantly reduced fares for people coming from more deprived areas and have incorporated local businesses into their stations. 

Wales’ capital city has seen the most change as a result of the act, with targets for Cardiff to move from 80% use of cars to a 50/50 shift in public : private transport use within the next two years. A large investment has gone into creating cycle ‘superhighways’ and suitable infrastructure for Next Bikes, a UK-wide bike sharing system. In addition, Cardiff is the first local authority in Wales to invest in electric buses and to have provided a public health official whose main role is to map out a new public transport strategy to improve air quality and reduce the city’s carbon footprint. 

Since the act’s implementation, the public bodies involved set their first objectives in 2017, amounting to 345 well-being objectives set across the country. Excitingly, the Commissioner stated in a 2019 report that there was clear progress being made across the four well-being pillars. Unfortunately, however there has been some resistance coming from the government, in the form of insufficient resources being provided for the act to reach its full potential. Pressure on various public bodies as a result of austerity and changes to public services have made it difficult for leaders to focus on the long term. The report also stated that no one public body had ‘cracked’ the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act across all of its requirements. The act, still in its adolescence, has since experienced extreme setbacks in the form of COVID-19 and a major shift in policy as a result of Brexit, thus, putting strain on public bodies and their services who are being forced to operate in a reactive, short term manner in order to meet the demands of our current climate. 

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However, the global fear of returning to “business as usual” after the pandemic should not be a fear for Wales as this promising legislation will hopefully adapt and regain strength. A Welsh word, “ddysgu,” meaning both to teach and to learn, embodies the course of action this legislation is taking. Howe has been sharing, inspiring and gaining insight, promoting the wellbeing of our planet’s future by representing Wales at the UN, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Network of Institutions for Future Generations between 2018 to 2019.

Governments need to start thinking beyond GDP, without a prosperous and healthy planet how can we expect economic growth to continue occurring in the future? Since 2015, other countries, including Hungary and the United Arab Emirates, have also set in motion similar legislation regarding wellbeing. Bhutan were the first to modernise the idea of promoting holistic wellbeing, with “gross national happiness” being used as a measure instead of GDP back in 2012.  In 2019, Bhutan was measured as the happiest nation in Asia. In 2016, the United Arab Emirates introduced the position of Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing, responsible for harmonising all of UAE’s government plans, programmes and policies to achieve a happier society. The Japanese proverb rings true here, “Individually we might be a drop but together we are an ocean” and as the Wellbeing of Future Generations Commissioner has stated, “hopefully what Wales is doing today will ripple to the four corners of the globe.”  

Featured image by: Flickr 

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Australia relies heavily on fossil fuels, particularly coal and gas, for the country’s energy requirements. A secure supply of reliable energy at an affordable price is paramount for Australia’s economic growth and prosperity. Historically, this has come from their rich sources of fossil fuels which accounts for 20% of the country’s total export value. More recently however, renewable energy has been on the rise within the energy mix of Australia, with 21% being made up of hydro, solar and wind generated energy in 2020. 

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With their reliance on fossil fuels, Australia has consistently been in the headlines for their apparent “denialist” government. Australia’s coal exports have increased in the last five years alongside a stable increase of greenhouse gases, with emissions increasing approximately 0.8% per year. They have disputed such statistics, stating they are on track to meet UN climate targets, hiding behind the ageing Kyoto Protocols’ credit system, whereby emissions that previously fell under the regulatory cap are now being emitted as credits. Alongside other highly-polluting nations such as China, Australia is falling short of targets set out by the UN Climate Action Summit, as a result of not meeting the call for increased commitments to climate action, leaving the brunt work to smaller countries. 

In September 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, despite being in the US at the time. Mirroring the Prime Minister’s actions, reported projections suggested Australia was not on target to meet the 2030 Paris Climate target and therefore also likely to be falling further behind the most recent call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for zero emissions by 2050. 

Despite the government’s denialist attitude, surprising headlines have recently arisen, crowning Australia as the new global renewable energy superpower. The private sector has dragged the pollutant giant kicking and screaming into the age of renewable energy. An unlikely duo in Australian software billionaire Mike Cannon Brookes and iron ore tycoon Andrew Forrest have proposed an ambitious project to create the world’s biggest solar panel farm in Australia’s Northern Territory. 15 000 hectares of photovoltaic panels are to be constructed near the small town of Tennants Creek halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs in 2023. However, what is more remarkable about this project is that the energy generated is to be stored during the day within a giant 30 gigawatt battery and exported during the night across a 3 750km underwater power line to Singapore, aiming to provide 20% of the city’s energy needs. 

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There are questions surrounding the export of renewable energy and not committing it to Australia’s domestic needs in order to meet the UN targets. But as a result of this project, other private corporations such as Tesla have begun similar ambitious endeavours to tap into Australia’s renewable energy supply. This has boosted the country’s potential for providing cheap renewable energy to the global market. As a result, 6.3 gigawatts of renewable solar and wind energy will be installed this year, five times more renewable energy than what was installed in 2016. Labour, the opposition party, leader Anthony Albanese stated in a press conference in September that the nation’s long term future lies in renewable energy but the Morrison Government seems to be blind to such opportunities. 

In addition, Australia’s switch will help drive the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19, with the coal industry becoming increasingly unstable. This instability is the direct result of Asian power companies switching to oil and Chinese government policies preventing imports of Australian sea-borne coal. Tensions began to arise between the trading nations when the Australian Government launched an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, accusing China of mishandling the virus outbreak. China began imposing tariffs on Australian beef and barley earlier this year and these tariffs then extended to coal and other minerals. An investigation by China’s Commerce Ministry however, suggested that Australian trading practices were detrimental to China’s domestic industries as a result of “dumping” whereby products are sold or “dumped” at a lower price overseas than it is in the country where it is produced. The resulting difficulty for domestic companies within China to compete with the lower prices and maintain their market share were said to be the main cause of the tariffs.

Prior to the trade dispute, $7.3bn of coal exports went to China in the first six months of 2020. This sudden halt to trade is likely to have severe knock on effects for both Australia’s energy and China’s steel industry. The current economic climate however, may provide the platform for renewable energy in Australia to grow. The government may no longer be able to deny the benefits to be had from investing in renewables, demonstrated throughout the private sector. 

But can the country rely on private firms to complete what the government is so doubtful about doing?  The potential is there. The rapid increase in investment by the private sector made Australia the global leader in renewable energy development per capita at the beginning of 2020. 

Reports from the Australian Reserve Bank economists showed however, that renewable investment has been rapidly falling over the last eight months. This is a direct result of the difficulty in getting 91 new large-scale renewable energy farms connected to the national grid in 2020, caused by a lack of similar levels of investment occurring in the electricity transmission network, resulting in delays in connection. According to the Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton, this has been a result of investors having an unclear view of what the government’s long term approach to clean energy is. Secondly, the Australian government’s National Renewable Energy Target has effectively halted its incentives targeted at private sector companies to invest in generating renewable energy. The target required private sector energy retailers to sell 23% of electricity generation across the grid from renewable sources by 2020. 

The target was reached in 2019 without the scheme being renewed, therefore halting incentives for new projects. The previous government led by Tony Abbott also legislated to abolish the National Renewable Energy Target back in 2015, but ultimately decided to only reduce its target by one fifth. To put this decision into perspective, according to the non profit organisation ClimateWorks, Australia would need to run on 79% green energy by 2030 in order to be on track for the UN Paris Agreement goals. 

The priorities of the government clearly do not lie in promoting renewable energy. This has ultimately resulted in an unstable platform for the private energy sector and in turn has created Australia’s improvised approach towards renewables. So is Australia the world’s new renewable superpower? The answer is simply: not yet. 

Featured image by: Flickr

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