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Climate

Climate Camp Cymru campaigners set up camp at Kilvey Hill

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THIS weekend (Aug 31), climate campaigners will gather at the first Welsh Climate camp in 15 years. The camp will take place at Kilvey Hill, Swansea. Climate Camp is a movement that organises temporary camps for environmental protesters, in areas threatened by ecocidal developments that increase carbon emissions, but which are organised with the support of the local community.

Kilvey woods is the green lung of Swansea city. It is one of Swansea’s largest urban fringe woodlands and is a designated Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, designated quiet area and open space land. It has the most beautiful footpaths in Swansea city centre, and a walk through the woods will leave your ears ringing with birdsong (birds such as skylark, night jar, linnet, peregrine, redwing, song thrush, fieldfare, raven and whitethroat). The extra noise from proposed 450,000 visitors and light pollution is likely to cause a loss of recently established birdlife and further damage to an area of regenerating landscape. It’s a nature rich site – the rare small blue butterfly, for example, has been recorded here – and a young but established woodland with an existing management plan to slowly return it to native broadleaf trees as the old plantation pines die out. The woodland was planted by the local community, yet now this publicly owned land may be leased to a private company in the face of significant opposition from the local community.

The Welsh Government are spending £4 million to help fund this development despite the fact that it contravenes the National Assembly of Wales Environment Act 2016. This money is also being spent at a time when inflation is high, energy costs are high, and many people are going to food banks. Swansea Council are giving £8 million pounds to this development. They have said that this is a loan that will be repaid without giving any details. Councils elsewhere in the UK who give millions ‘on loan’ to dubious tourist developments often do not get their money back, despite giving guarantees to the public that they will. This is public money and there are better and more responsible things it can be spent on than schemes like this.

Swansea County Council declared a climate and nature emergency in June 2019 and again in November 2021 and have also placed around the city centre planters and information boards to encourage biodiversity and to celebrate and inform people of our natural heritage. Despite this, they are supporting a project that will destroy a woodland area the size of 11 football fields on Kilvey Hill and leave it permanently blighted. That brings Swansea council’s stated claims about climate change and biodiversity into disrepute and means it is questionable whether these aspirations are anything more than empty words.

Climate Camp Cymru will be a space of education with a great number of workshops & skillshare sessions. This includes opportunities to learn from other environmental struggles around the world such as Ende Gelände in Germany and get experience with practical campaigning skills.

A local spokesperson for the Save Kilvey Hill campaign said “Kilvey has magnificent views over Swansea bay and in every other direction you look. It is a quiet and peaceful place where Swansea residents can get away from it all, reconnect with nature, enjoy the views in peace, and de-stress. This will all be destroyed by the buildings, cable cars, steel pylons, concrete ‘Go Kart’ style tracks, restaurants, and so on that are being planned by Skyline and Swansea Council.”

The proposed development will privatise around a third of the publicly accessible land on Kilvey Hill in a central position. It will destroy existing unrecorded paths used on foot and horse for generations. It would be so vast that all areas of the hill around it would be affected by noise pollution, traffic, and air pollution, and be overlooked by 22 cable cars and a 50 metre skyswing. The community roundhouse in a peaceful glade will be directly overlooked by the cable cars. Many community groups use the hill precisely because it is a quiet, natural landscape unspoiled by commercial development.

An individual hosting a workshop at the climate camp added “Wales has had a key role in the emergence of the fossil fuel industry that has become such a massive threat to the very future of civilisation. As books like The Origins of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood describe, capitalism emerged in the late 1700s in the south of England, and spread from there around the world, pushed in no small part by the British empire. And the rich veins of coal that Wales has were a key source of fuel for this brutal colonial expansion.

With this history in mind, we think that it’s absolutely key that we in Wales also take a leading role in bringing this ecocidal system to an end, and building something more sustainable, more equal in its place”

The camp community and Save Kilvey Hill campaign will join the peaceful demonstration for Palestinian solidarity at the council green on Sunday afternoon, calling on the local council to honour their responsibilities to protect the local environment and the wellbeing of their community, and to draw the links of solidarity with Palestinian communities currently undergoing the devastation of their environment and wellbeing in Gaza and the West Bank.

Climate

Senedd Cymru’s ‘Green Economy’ Report – Bute Energy responds

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SENEDD CYMRU’S Economy Committee published its report ‘Green Economy’, which a series of recommendations on the future of the renewable industry in Wales.

Members of the Committee made particular reference to the content of local supply chains, local ownership, and skills. Bute Energy has welcomed the report.

Bute Energy is developing the largest pipeline of onshore wind in Wales, capable of generating more than 2.2GW of clean energy by 2030, enough to power 2.25m homes and create up to 2,000 new jobs.

The company is backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and the Welsh Pension Partnership, meaning that local authority pension holders across the 8 member authorities will benefit directly from Wales’ clean energy mission.

Responding, Community Investment and Communications Director Catryn Newton said: “Onshore wind not only represents the quickest route to the decarbonisation of Wales’ energy system, but also typically has higher levels of local and Welsh suppliers across the lifetime of the projects.

“At Bute Energy we’re working tirelessly to set a new standard for our projects – whether that’s our Net Zero Skills Strategy, how we deploy our potential £20m a year community benefit fund to benefit local communities, our social value in procurement standard.

“Our mission is not only to power Wales with clean energy but to maximise the investment in our clean energy transition to the benefit of Wales and our communities.”

Bute Energy states that its partnership with the Welsh Pension Partnership represents the most equitable form of community and shared ownership in Wales. Hundreds of thousands of Welsh pension holders will benefit from the transition to clean power.

The company will also invest up to 25% of its Community Benefit Fund to support local community energy schemes which it will gift to communities, local services and charities in the communities nearest its energy parks.

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Climate

Kurtz Champions green energy at Empower Cymru 2025 conference

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SAMUEL KURTZ Member of the Senedd for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, delivered the closing address at the Empower Cymru 2025 conference this week.

The event, held at Techniquest in Cardiff, brought together industry professionals from wind and solar energy, oil and gas, education providers, and other key stakeholders to discuss the future of Wales’ energy sector.

Closing the conference, the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Energy highlighted the prosperity that energy production can bring to communities that have long felt left behind.

He reaffirmed his commitment to advocating for pragmatic policies that encourage investment in renewable energy, including hydrogen production and carbon captur, while being realistic about Wales’ need for oil and gas for the foreseeable future.

Speaking after the event, he said: “It was fantastic to see so many people from across the energy sector come together to discuss Wales’ future. We have talked at length about our country’s incredible potential for renewables, thanks in part to our extensive coastline and access to the Celtic Sea, but now is the time for action.

“If we can demonstrate that Wales is open for business, we can attract investment in infrastructure and education, ensuring secure energy supplies, creating green jobs, and generating prosperity for our local communities.

“For too long, industrial decline has led to fewer job opportunities and economic stagnation in parts of Wales. By embracing energy production, we have the chance to reverse that trend, revitalise our economy, and safeguard our economic and energy security during these turbulent times.”

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Climate

‘Severely flawed’ vulnerable customer lists delayed storm response

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INACCURATE lists of vulnerable people led to delays in responding to storms, with staff sent to non-existent homes and a customer who had died years earlier, a committee heard.

Giving evidence to an inquiry on storms Bert and Darragh, which hit Wales late last year, Carmarthenshire Council described utility firms’ priority customer data as severely flawed.

The council told the Senedd’s climate committee the lists were inaccurate, out of date, and incompatible with NHS and social care definitions of vulnerability.

In written evidence, the council said this resulted in staff being deployed to screen the sheer volume, comparing thousands of names with council and health board records.

The council warned: “This caused unnecessary delays and on several occasions diverted operational staff away from their responsive work … to check addresses which did not either exist or in one case, the customer had passed away years before.”

Appearing before the committee on March 6, Paul Ridley, the council’s civil contingencies manager, called for consistency in the interpretation of vulnerability across all agencies.

Ainsley Williams, director of infrastructure at the council, pointed to initial problems due to concerns raised about data sharing and GDPR.

He added: “It still needs wider awareness amongst organisations that they can do that and must do that in an emergency.”

Ian Christie, managing director of water services at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, said: “There is work to be done on joining up all vulnerable customers because we all have individual priority services registers with all different definitions of what makes a customer vulnerable.”

Mr Christie told the committee that GDPR “unfortunately cuts through everything”.

He said: “One of our biggest issues is trying to explain to a customer: just because they’ve registered … with another agency, that doesn’t automatically update to our priority services.”

Liam O’Sullivan, director of ScottishPower Energy Networks which owns the north Wales network, said customers are contracted every two years to check information is up to date.

“It’s very difficult at times because it’s an ever-changing picture,” he told Senedd Members.

The Conservatives’ Janet Finch-Saunders warned of huge issues with priority registers.

Conservative MS Janet Finch-Saunders
Conservative MS Janet Finch-Saunders

Ms Finch-Saunders said: “I can’t for the life of me – now with digital technology – understand why we haven’t got one list that is used by the fire [service], health, you name it.”

She raised January’s burst pipe which left 100,000 people in north Wales without water, with the number of customers registered as vulnerable doubling to 7,500 in a few days.

“That shows there’s some weakness in the system,” she said.

Mr Christie explained a task-and-finish group has been set up by Huw Irranca-Davies, the Deputy First Minister, to look at trying to resolve the issue of one common list.

Labour’s Carolyn Thomas questioned why Anglesey council was only provided with a register at 9pm on Sunday December 9, more than 24 hours after Storm Darragh’s peak.

Labour MS Carolyn Thomas
Labour MS Carolyn Thomas

Mr O’Sullivan said of the approximately 70,000 people who live on the island, 17,000 are on the priority services register.

“We did our best to prioritise those customers,” he said.

Pressed about the 24-hour delay, he told the committee: “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that that was the case – but it certainly won’t be the case next time.”

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