Plaid Cymru leader abandons net zero emissions pledge

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has dropped his party's pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions in Wales by 2035.

It had committed to the target at the last general election, and made it part of its co-operation deal with the Welsh government in 2021.

But ap Iorwerth told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday that achieving net zero in that timeframe "isn't realistic".

Net zero is where the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere is offset by the amount that is removed from the atmosphere, through tree planting, carbon capture or other techniques.

It would require Wales to move away from carbon-emitting power sources and relying more on wind and solar.

Plaid agreed with the Welsh government in 2021 for a study on how Wales could achieve the target by 2035, when Adam Price was the party's leader.

It said the plan would require a "significant step change in ambition from the Welsh government, support from the UK government and a greater societal mandate for change".

Plaid's 2024 general election manifesto reaffirmed the party's target, saying it recognised that "the climate and nature emergencies are the biggest threat to mankind on a global scale".

The UK government has a target of reaching net zero by 2050. Ap Iorwerth said he believed "we can aim for quicker than 2050, absolutely".

But speaking to Radio Wales, he said: "I think most people now can see that 2035 isn't realistic.

"We are very, very close. Time rolls by, and we have to take a pragmatic look at that.

"I think everything points to needing to be a point in the future where we need to keep an eye on the prize."

His party has been criticised by Labour for "repeatedly" opposing green energy infrastructure for Wales, such as pylons.

Plaid has said that if it won the Senedd election in May it would establish a "strong presumption in favour of undergrounding", and the "use of wooden poles where necessary, as Wales transitions to a modern green energy system, banning steel pylons for any line" of 132 kilovolt or below.

The party has insisted it supports renewable energy "unequivocally".

On Radio Wales ap Iorwerth said there "should be a presumption in favour" of using underground cables.

He acknowledged there were "expense issues" with such a plan, and said that in "some places you will have to have pylons".

"There are currently connections being made across large parts of rural Wales, where I think it could be a mix of both, partly undergrounding, using cheaper options... where that's geographically possible, and having single poles rather than steel lattice cables elsewhere," he said.