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The Welsh government has just declared a climate emergency and it is very pleased with itself.

It was like Lord of the Rings.

Steward of Gondor/ rural affairs minister Lesley Griffiths lit the beacons with the battle cry that the declaration by Welsh Government “can help to trigger a wave of action at home and internationally.’’

Presumably every other elected body in the world would suddenly begin mustering like the riders of Rohan to aid our rapidly warming climate.

Except declaring a climate emergency is not lighting the beacons.

It is simply suggesting that, perhaps, we should make a plan to start gathering wood in order to potentially construct some beacons in the future. It is basically declaring the intention to take action eventually when you are already perfectly equipped to take now.

Climate change is THE issue and it is nice of Welsh Government to join us in the real world that recognises this. However that is all they have done, recognise it.

Think about a house fire.

(Image: PA)

You are sitting in the house and the blaze has broken out in the kitchen. It is small at first but gradually starts to spread. Your house is getting hotter and hotter. Soon the fire is going to reach a point that your house/planet will be totally inhospitable. Unfortunately to start with many people said that the fire hadn’t happened, that it wasn’t really there and even if it was - we didn’t start it.

Now, however, we all acknowledge that the fire is a real threat and the Welsh Government’s declaration is simply raising the alarm. The heroes that deserve the praise are not the people raising the alarm, it is the firefighters tackling the blaze.

If the Welsh Government wants praise they need to tackle the blaze, not just raise the alarm.

It is the number one concern for by voters under 28. According to a 2018 poll by Opinium and Bright Blue, 75% of people are either fairly or very concerned about climate change with 64% of UK adults agreeing the UK should aim to cut its emissions to zero over the next few decades, while 63% agree that the UK should be a global leader in tackling climate change.

Frankly it doesn’t matter if 0% of "the public" think it is an issue.

All that matters is that every single person with any objective expertise in this area is telling us that if we do not act, we face disaster on a scale we have never seen before as a species.

Governments can make all the declarations they want but it means absolutely nothing without action. What makes statements like this a little bit hollow is that huge amounts of the powers they need to tackle the problem are already in their possession.

Now don’t get me wrong there are some key powers that are very useful to tackling climate change that Wales doesn’t have. Most of the economic/fiscal powers are retained by Westminster, as is energy policy, much industrial police and nationally significant infrastructure.

However agriculture (a huge contributor to emissions) is devolved, as is waste, local government and housing.

Even with industrial policy there are devolved elements through planning and consenting activity.

The latest target for the UK as a whole recommended by the Committee on Climate Change is to be net zero on greenhouse gases by 2050 (relative to 1990 levels).

I do have sympathy with Welsh Government when it comes to hitting the targets of making Wales carbon neutral 2050. It is a daunting task for any government and Wales in particular is going to find this difficult compared to places like Scotland.

The reason is twofold. The first is that Wales has relatively high agricultural emissions compared to Scotland with almost three quarters of Welsh land use grassland. Agricultural emissions are much harder to reduce compared to, for instance, transport.

Put simply Wales has too many sheep! You can’t get a more carbon efficient sheep and there is dual problem that land covered in sheep is not covered in trees.

Wales also has the problem that it is less suited for CO2 capture and storage. This technology basically means you capture carbon dioxide from industry and store it (usually underground) where it can’t enter the atmosphere. Unfortunately Wales and Northern Ireland don’t have many areas suitable for this whereas Scotland has loads of disused North Sea oil and gas fields they can fill.

Because Wales faces a tougher challenge in getting down to zero emission the latest recommendations actually suggest that we only aim for 95% of this target by 2050. Scotland by contrast is recommended to be 100% by 2045.

Clearly the challenges in front of Wales are huge in hitting climate targets but they are also absolutely achievable. What makes this declaration incredibly frustrating it appears to be policy makers giving themselves a great big pat on the back for acknowledging there is a problem.

If they had declared this 20 years ago they would have deserved the plaudits for being ahead of the game. However, simply acknowledging an issue that has been recognised for over three decades is not reason for applause. Yes they are one of the first to make such a declaration but that winning an award for the most athletic panda.

Instead trying to trump Plaid and score political points why don’t our elected representatives try something substantive.

Not a single molecule of CO2 will be stopped from entering the atmosphere by Lesley Griffiths' announcement. What would make a far more of a difference would have been, well, anything.

Imagine if instead of this they had announced cash incentives for technology companies targeting climate change, a solar panel on every Welsh house or a huge tree planting program that would introduce five new forests to Wales.

Imagine the buzz if they announced that every house would be covered in cladding to make it energy efficient or that there would be tax cuts to low carbon manufacturing.

One positive of the declaration is that we are discussing this issue at last and well done to the protesters and young people who done so much to spotlight the issue.

I hope I am being cynical and the future Wales will be leading the fight for a planet with its actions not its press releases.

If not, our children will be the ones engulfed by the house fire.