Wales is rising to the challenge of the changing world of energy and leading the way in the UK, First Minister Rhodri Morgan told delegates at his Energy Summit today.

The First Minister said that since he last met delegates at the annual summit, the pace of change in the energy sector has continued to accelerate at European, UK and Wales levels culminating last week with the publication o the Wales Renewable Energy Route Map, the first to be published by a UK administration.

Mr Morgan said: "The energy world has been a tremendously busy one, both at project and policy level, since we last met a year ago. The key to our aims is to maximise Wales' contribution t the abatement of global warming, not to produce a set of strategies that make the Welsh figures look good.

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"I am pleased to say that in Wales we have been equally busy meeting the tasks of securing our energy needs for the future. It represents another big step by our small country on the path to making Wales a low carbon energy economy."

Expanding the production and use of low carbon and secure energy is one of the Assembly Government's key One Wales commitments.

The Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, Jane Davison, told the Summit that the Assembly Government was unique in Europe in having a legal duty to promote sustainable development: "Tackling climate change is my top priority and I believe the Route Map, which I launched in Cwmbran and London last week, is one of the ways that we can achieve this.

"Climate change is with us. We have to deal with it but we cannot tackle it alone. Everybody in Wales needs to be taking part in the consultation around the Route Map as this will inform our Energy Strategy which we will be publishing before the end of the year."

(JM)