How we will make nature and communities resilient to climate change

South East Wales

In South East Wales, we recognise the important role the area’s network of open green and blue spaces can have on enhancing people’s well-being and quality of life. As a partner of the Gwent Green Grid regional partnership, we will develop a Green Infrastructure Strategy for the area, putting in place the mechanisms to deliver a regional network made up of the natural and semi-natural features and green and blue spaces that connect Gwent’s villages, towns and cities. The ambition will be to provide more green jobs, skills development and volunteering opportunities within the region. It will also stimulate community cohesion that will bring benefits for nature and people alike and help tackle the climate emergency.

We will also continue to work with partners, including the Woodland Trust and the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to restore ancient woodland sites in the Wye Valley and deliver nature-based solutions that will increase our forests’ resilience to climate impacts and deliver health and well-being benefits for those who live and work in the community.

South Wales Central

The steep-sided valleys and urban locations that make up the landscape in South Wales Central make this area vulnerable to surface water and river flooding. In consideration of the accelerating climate impacts, we will deliver a Strategic Flood Masterplan for the River Taff, taking a whole catchment approach to flood risk management in this area. As the leading flood risk management authority for this geographical area, we will lead and collaborate with other authorities to ensure multi-source flood risk, and how we manage those risks, is considered at every stage, and that we take every opportunity to maximise additional benefits for nature and communities in this area through developing a common vision.

We will also work across communities in South Wales Central to develop more sustainable landscapes and increase their resilience to the impacts of flooding, wildfires and pollution and ensure people have clean air to breath, clean waters to swim in and equal access to green spaces.

South West Wales

South West Wales’ diverse and varied landscapes include farmlands and rugged uplands, extensive coastlines and industrial valleys which each bring opportunities, risks and priorities that we will address to build the resilience of nature and communities in this area.

Home to some of the largest CO₂ emitters in Wales, we will work with regulated industry in South West Wales to help them to reduce their emissions and play their part in helping Wales to achieve its ambitions to transition to a low carbon economy.

We will also look to further harness Wales’ potential to deliver more green energy by unlocking the potential of the Welsh Government Woodland Estate to facilitate renewable energy schemes. This includes the proposed windfarm developments at Bryn and Margam Forest and third party access to developments on adjacent land. We will also work to the Welsh Government's Renewable Energy Developer (RED) programme to identify future sites suitable for delivering the 250MW renewable energy generation targets by 2030.

Mid Wales

Our work to increase communities and nature’s resilience to climate change in Mid Wales will focus on the strength of our partnerships in this area. Taking a landscape scale approach, we will work alongside our partners as part of the Welsh Water-led Brecon Beacons Mega Catchment (BBMC) project to explore new ways of working to support the development of flood mitigation opportunities. 

We will also leverage our role as partners in both Powys and Ceredigion PSBs to collaborate in the delivery of the Well-being Plans 2023-28, sharing the lead on the implementation of decarbonisation projects in Ceredigion and taking a place-focussed approach to climate change adaptation across the area.

North West Wales

We will continue to work with strategic partners across North West and North East Wales through the North Wales Regional Leadership Board and the CEO group, where decarbonisation is one of our priority discussion areas. We are already having important conversations about how we work together to tackle the difficult issues at hand, and where changes might be needed in our approach to think differently and more creatively to meet the demands of both the climate and nature emergencies, and to ensure North Wales has a resilient future. 

Sensitively managing the special landscapes at Newborough on Anglesey will be a key focus for our North West teams. Newborough’s location make it more susceptible to climate change impacts on our coastline. Recognising the value local communities place on this area, we will work closely with them to plan our work around biodiversity and forestry.  Through our work with Anglesey Council, we will put this area at the heart of joint planning to ensure it becomes more resilient as the climate changes. This work at a local level will help inform the wider regional approach to tackling climate change being addressed across North Wales’ PSBs.

North East Wales

Our work with PSBs will be instrumental in how we deliver our ambitions to make nature and communities in North East Wales more resilient to climate change. We will also commit to progressing a range of partnership projects in this area, including the creation of a community level resilience plan at Pengwern near Llangollen, leading the vision for the Wrexham Forests Partnerships, the development of integrated catchment management in the Vale of Clwyd, and support initiatives that connect people to nature through Green Social Prescribing and the North Wales Healthy Travel Charter. 

Marine

Our Marine teams will work with partners to harness the power of our seas through our Offshore Renewable Energy Programme (OREP) and facilitate the sustainable deployment of offshore renewable energy development in Wales.

Through this programme we have been developing and testing new approaches, seeking to manage uncertainties around the potential environmental impacts of new technologies.

With climate change-related sea level rise and changing coastal protection levels in mind, we will also deliver a Coastal Adaptation Programme (CAP) to deliver the best outcomes for communities most at risk. This work addresses priorities identified across all our Area Statements. We have identified a range of sites where there are opportunities for strategic outcomes and sustainable flood risk management options. These sites, which currently include Dinas Dinlle and Tan Lan in North Wales, the South West Dyfi estuary in Mid Wales and Mwche in South Wales are under detailed review.