Updated national planning policy with an increased focus on tackling climate change has been unveiled by Environment Minister Jane Davidson at the Royal Town Planning Institute conference in City Hall, Cardiff.

The Minister launched the second edition of Planning Policy Wales which highlights the important role the planning system has to play in ensuring a sustainable future for Wales.

The launch followed the Minister's visit to a sustainable housing development in Newport earlier in the day which will offer residents low energy bills estimated at less than £5 a week.


Planning Policy Wales provides the strategic policy framework for local planning authorities to use when preparing development plans and determining applications for planning permission.

Speaking about Planning Policy Wales, the Environment Minister said: "The main driver for this consolidated version of Planning Policy Wales is to further embed the need to tackle climate change into the planning system. Climate change is one of the most serious global threats facing us today. As a society we must take action to minimise the causes of global climate change as well as understand and deal with the consequences of inevitable change.

"Climate change will have potentially profound environmental, economic and social justice implications and failure to address it will make planning for sustainable development impossible. As a small industrialised nation, Wales has the opportunity to lead the way in tackling climate change, and the planning system must play its part."

(CD/GK)