{"id":788104,"date":"2026-02-25T13:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/788104\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:33:14","slug":"wales-strengthens-environmental-protections-as-landmark-bill-passes-senedd-welsh-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/788104\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales strengthens environmental protections as landmark Bill passes Senedd | Welsh Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wales strengthens environmental protections as landmark Bill passes Senedd<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Wales has taken another huge step forward in tackling the nature and climate emergencies after the Senedd passed landmark environmental legislation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Environment (Principles, Governance and Biodiversity Targets) (Wales) Bill\u00a0establishes\u00a0a new framework for environmental protection, creating an independent watchdog and empowering Welsh Ministers to set legally binding biodiversity targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Deputy First Minister\u00a0with responsibility for Climate Change,\u00a0Huw\u00a0Irranca-Davies said:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is a landmark moment for\u00a0nature in\u00a0Wales. By passing this Bill,\u00a0we have\u00a0sent a clear message that protecting our natural environment is a national priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As this\u00a0winter has shown, climate change is driving more extreme weather events \u2013 putting pressure on our environment and biodiversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With one in\u00a0five\u00a0species at risk of extinction and communities across Wales already feeling the effects of more frequent floods, heatwaves and wildfires,\u00a0this legislation gives us the tools we need to act decisively.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The new legislation will create the Office of Environmental Governance Wales, an independent body responsible for holding public authorities to account on environmental law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This includes scrutinising the Welsh Government, Natural Resources\u00a0Wales\u00a0and local authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The legislation also enables\u00a0and requires\u00a0Ministers to set ambitious, legally binding targets to halt and reverse biodiversity decline by increasing native species, strengthening ecosystem\u00a0resilience\u00a0and\u00a0addressing the drivers of biodiversity loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales strengthens environmental protections as landmark Bill passes Senedd Wales has taken another huge step forward in tackling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5010],"tags":[5033,4675,748,5027,7029,131785,112545,728,11671,22885,4923,3976,1234,4884,229405,5026,176450,38444,50171,33595,16,15,1764,12497],"class_list":["post-788104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wales","tag-bill","tag-biodiversity","tag-britain","tag-change","tag-climate","tag-davies","tag-deputy","tag-environment","tag-environmental","tag-february","tag-first","tag-governance","tag-government","tag-great-britain","tag-irranca","tag-minister","tag-ministers","tag-natural","tag-office","tag-senedd","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-welsh"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116131528954233386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}