Climate change: Carwyn Jones defends his record as he leaves Senedd

Carwyn Jones stepped down as a member of the Senedd this month after 22 years

Tackling climate change slipped "down the agenda" in the years following the 2008 financial crash, according to Wales' former first minister.

Carwyn Jones was defending his record in power after being announced as chair of climate charity Size of Wales.

Mr Jones, a Senedd member for 22 years, said the issue needed to be the world's "top priority", warning communities and livelihoods risked being "destroyed".

He stood down from the Senedd ahead of the election earlier this month.

Mr Jones said he now wanted to make campaigning for action on climate change - "the biggest challenge that humanity has faced since the second world war" - a focus of his post-politics life.

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During his time as first minister between 2009 and 2018, major new laws such as the Environment Act and Well-being of Future Generations Act were passed, but Wales consistently failed to meet tree-planting targets and experienced years when greenhouse gas emissions went up instead of down.

Pressed on his actions in office, he said there was "always more to do".

He pointed to support for public transport and the creation of Transport for Wales as examples of positive action, despite criticism from the environment sector that emissions from transport only fell 3% in Wales between 1990 and 2016.

"I think the problem we've had in the past decade is people seem to be more supportive of dealing with climate change when they feel financially secure," he said.

'Back up the agenda'

"After 2008 and the crash that happened there, climate change started to go down the agenda across the world.

"People were more interested in the need to prop up our economies, making sure people have money in their pockets and are secure.

"The two things are not contradictory, and I'm glad to see now that climate change is going back up the agenda across the world."

While the pandemic had shown how changes could be instigated quickly, it had also highlighted a problem of "countries not working together", something that needed to be addressed in responding to global warming, he warned.

His successor Mark Drakeford's decision to set up a climate change department in the Welsh government with a new minister and deputy minister to take charge of the issue was a "hugely important signal", he said.

"We can give practical examples to show other countries that we're doing our bit in Wales - we're a small country but we can have a positive effect," he said.

Size of Wales' director Nicola Pulman said the former first minister would bring "a track record at the highest level of government in tackling climate change" to the charity's work.

It supports forest protection and tree growing projects in Africa, South America and south-east Asia as well as running a Wales-wide educational programme to help teach young people about climate change.