A presentation from Peter Davies, Sustainable Futures Commissioner for Wales, to Pembrokeshire South East Energy Group covered two current issues - Welsh Government's planned Sustainable Development Bill and the latest report on our progress in tackling climate change from the Climate Change Commission for Wales.

The new Bill will require all public bodies to embed sustainable development as their central organising principle and will establish a new independent body to support the implementation of this duty.

The Bill aims to ensure public bodies delivers improvements in the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of current and future generations. The Bill would apply to local authorities in 2016 and town and community councils in 2017.

The group agreed to respond to the current consultation on the Bill as it must support the provision of affordable, secure low carbon energy supplies and improvements in energy efficiency. The group also felt that community organisations would have a key role in ensuring that public bodies complied with the principles set out in the Bill and recommended a strong role for the new independent body.

The need for the new Bill was emphasised by the Climate Change Commission report which showed that carbon emissions in Wales rose by eight per cent in 2010.

The continued growth in global emissions is accelerating changes in the world's climate, leading to extreme weather events, such as the flooding experienced in Wales in the last year. The report stresses that well being of future generations increasingly  depends on our ability to accelerate the transition to low carbon energy supplies.