- 1 Nikhil Seth, Head of Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme UNDP, on a visit (...)
“We hope that what Wales does today, the world will do tomorrow. Action, more than words, is the hope for our current and future generations.1” Nikhil Seth, Head of Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme UNDP
- 2 Victoria Jenkins, “Placing Sustainable Development at the Heart of Government: the role of law in t (...)
“A legal duty in respect of sustainable development duty may act as a powerful educator of all actors in society and in focusing action in government in particular.2” Victoria Jenkins, Swansea University School of Law
- 3 Greta Thunberg, in Oliver Milman, “Greta Thunberg condemns world leaders in emotional speech at UN” (...)
“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.3” Greta Thunberg, 2019 UN Climate Action Summit
1In 2015 our government in Wales passed into law the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. This act is the first legislation in the world to enshrine the rights of future generations alongside current ones and requires Welsh Government ministers and the organisations they oversee to embed this commitment into everything they do.
2When it received Royal Assent in 2015, the Welsh Government which sponsored the legislation said:
- 4 Carl Sargeant, “Oral Statement – The UN Goals and the Well Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act” (...)
By passing the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we have formally placed sustainable development at the heart of our public services and legislated for a set of goals – linked to the UN’s Global Goals – that set a clear path to a sustainable future4.
3The creation of the Act was a brave and wonderful act by the Welsh Government and a vote of confidence by the Welsh legislature for a different, more sustainable future for Wales. The Act asks simply that the effect of decisions on the needs of future generations is factored into the decision-making process and gives guidance on how to do that – it provides permission to think sustainably in an unsustainable world. It is revolutionary because it enshrines into law that the well-being of the current and future people of Wales is explicitly the core purpose of the Government of Wales – the principle at the heart of government.
4Such a core principle is revolutionary in its own right, but the Act goes further: it both enshrines the intention and how to get there so it becomes a framework for collective action. If you ask the question, ‘What does the Act do?’, the answer is that it creates seven goals linked to health, prosperity, resilience, communities, language and heritage, equality and Wales’ role in the world, all enshrined within the concept of living within our environmental limits.
5If you ask the question, ‘How should people comply with the Act?’, it directs five ways of working to reach decisions; prevention, long termism, collaboration, participation and integrating activities to reach positive outcomes for as many of the goals as possible. The seven goals are the ‘what’; the five ways of working are the ‘how’. This is a moral agenda, predicated on what is right, not in the short term nor for individual benefit, but what is right for the well-being of our communities, countries and our very existence as humans in nature.
6In this article, as the Minister who proposed the Act, I recount what led up to it, examine why Wales was first to do it and then assess whether it is working and what needs to happen next. Many times, I have been asked about why I wanted to create a law to benefit future generations. I did not set out to do that, but when I asked myself how we could reset the needle for a new age of politics and offer hope to future generations and to Nature – which does not have a vote – I came to the conclusion that the only way to ensure a positive future for the next generation, and the ones that follow, is for government to act differently now. I have been called its mother, its architect, its creator, all of which have are very flattering, but not accurate. I accept that if I had not been in the ministerial position that I was, at the time that I was, we may not have an Act in Wales now, but this is probably more to do with my inherent obstinacy, a refusal to take no for an answer on something I believe in, than any higher motive.
7If the proposition attracts you, then I must direct you to my book, #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country - a frank account of the journey Wales took from my personal perspective; hopefully answering the ‘why Wales?’ and ‘why now?’ questions and whether the first country in the world that took legislative action specifically to protect generations yet to come is doing the job envisaged.
- 5 Desmond Tutu came to Wales in October 2012 to celebrate Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa program (...)
“People of Wales have big hearts. They belong in a small country, but, oh man, they really have the kick of a mule!5”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
8The story of Wales is a story of ambition; a small country that sought a new opportunity from 1999, through its new legislature, the National Assembly for Wales, to reframe the traditional role of government by creating a new context in which to inspire better decisions in the interests of current and future generations.
9I am strongly of the belief that there are particular opportunities for a small country to be a testbed; to be smarter and more flexible than its larger neighbours; where cultural behaviour-change experiments can be piloted, and new approaches forged.
- 6 See Welsh Government, Welsh Language Data from the Annual Population Survey: July 2018 to June 2019(...)
10Culturally, Wales has sustained the oldest Celtic language in the world into current use. The Welsh language has official status in Wales, and all political parties are encouraging its expansion. Many people who come to Wales for the first time are surprised to hear people speaking Welsh as their first language as they go about their daily activities. In 2018, the Annual Population Survey reported that nearly a third of people could speak some Welsh, with a fifth fluent in the language6. Nearly a third of school pupils receive all or most of their education in Welsh. Where I live, in the rural county of Pembrokeshire, is one of the many places in Wales where all services are naturally delivered in Welsh by Welsh first-language speakers. This makes it a very different environment to other parts of the UK and is worthy of celebration. The National Eisteddfod, which dates back to Cardigan Castle in 1176, is not only the annual celebration of Welsh language and culture and the largest celebration of minority language culture in Europe but is also the largest poetry and music festival in Europe, recognised globally by its ancient Red Dragon flag that is proudly outside the Union Jack. Its young person equivalent, the Urdd National Eisteddfod – the annual Welsh language youth festival of literature, music and the performing arts – is also Europe’s largest youth festival. I will come back later to the important part Welsh language and culture plays in the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
11Wales is both a nation with an ancient parliamentary history going back to 1404 and a modern vibrant country with world-class universities and fantastic natural resources – its coasts and its mountains bring tourists from all over the world. Many people who come to university here never leave because of the quality of the natural environment. Adjacent to its second city, Swansea, lies the ten-mile-long Gower peninsula, the first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK [in 1956]. The Gower’s beaches have regularly featured among the best in the world as have those in the county I live in, and the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. Eryri (Snowdonia), the mountainous region in the north is famed for hosting the second highest mountain in the UK, Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon) and the world’s second steepest road.
12But its modern, outward looking approach belies a darker legacy.
13Wales is often recognised as the first industrial country, whose considerable wealth and health was extracted from it for the benefit of people elsewhere. Wales has often led innovation, shown by the 1841 census to be the first country in history that moved from agriculture to industry,7 where the first £1 million cheque ever was signed in the Cardiff Coal Exchange.8 Its industrial development, while kick-starting the industrial revolution, was based primarily on coal, iron, copper and steel and came at an appalling cost both to its environment and the health and well-being of its people. Quarrying was the other key industry that fuelled the revolution with stone used for buildings and roads. The records and pictures from the 19th century are records of hell, where the work was impossibly hard, conducted in atmospheres of belching smoke, dangerous blasting, poisonous fumes or the unstable dark of the mines. As we leave the old industries behind, there is a danger that we also leave behind the current and future generations of the thousands of families who once contributed to Wales’ industrial strength.
14With this industrial heritage, Wales unsurprisingly has a very poor health record with life expectancies varying five years within one mile. Inequalities in health are most pronounced in areas that also experienced social and economic deprivation such as the South Wales ex-mining valleys.
15Wales has a small population – fewer than 4 million – with substantial cultural diversity in the towns and cities with docks, where different communities have integrated well for over a century. The Labour Party has been the dominant political force in Wales for more than a century. Social justice and tackling poverty remain key political themes, as does a wider equality agenda including ethnicity and gender. There is a pervading feeling in communities ‘left behind’ by the move away from coal and steel – and with some justification – that they did all the work and did not receive the benefit. If any country needs to look after the health and well-being of future generations, it is Wales!
16For years, the notion of getting on in Wales was to get out and the 20th century saw Welsh emigration across the world, but in this century, and particularly since 1999, there are signs of people wanting to come back to Wales, citing quality of life, distinctiveness, the Welsh language and increasingly the fact that Wales now has its own legislature. Excitingly, the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act itself is becoming a tool of Wales’ ‘soft power’ in the world, where its very existence tells you about the characteristics of a nation open to change and prepared to be responsible for future generations.
17We live in interesting times. We might be the poorest country in the UK, but we are innovators: at the forefront of genetic and Alzheimer’s Disease research, but also the world’s first FairTrade nation, a world leader in recycling, a UK leader in organ donation, one of the only countries in the world where ‘you can walk the shape of a nation’ along our 870-mile coast and of course the first country in the world to legislate for future generations.
- 9 Margaret Mead, in Donald Keys, Earth at Omega: Passage to Planetization, Boston, Branden Pub Co, 19 (...)
18In so many ways, it would be easy to suggest that we live in very dark times; where drawbridges are being pulled up across the world; where those fleeing persecution, famine or flood are turned back at borders, sometimes losing their lives in the process. But there is hope – hope from individuals, from movements, from science, from politics. Margaret Mead, the anthropologist famously said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.9” We have been and are being transformative, we have been and are used to big ambition; but making this huge commitment to living more sustainably for the benefit of current and future generations - how exciting and ground-breaking is that? If lessons from the small country of Wales can help keep the intergenerational beacon alight, my job will have been well done.
19In May 2011, when I left the world of politics, I made a deliberate choice to ‘walk off my old life into my new’ by re-walking the Pembrokeshire coast path forty years on and re-connecting with Nature. Wherever you start your journey on the coast in Wales, be prepared for an instant assault on your senses. Each day brought changing rock formations and soaring birds - razorbills and guillemots, herons and cormorants – and the flowers, bluebells, foxgloves, burdock, pyramid orchids, thrift and tiny sea pinks, speedwell, egg and bacon squills. We foraged for samphire and wild sorrel, remarking on the shining abundance of blackberries yet to come later in the year. We swam in pools, in surf, with seals, in the rain or magically in the light of the setting sun, showering under waterfalls. It is always hard to find the words to describe the rocks, the cliffs, the arches, the mossy caves, the bridges you see on your way. The coastline demonstrates Nature at her most imaginative while also demonstrating evidence of long human occupation with distinctive Iron Age hill forts guarding promontories along the way. It is the contrasts that make the walk so wonderful. Red sandstone, streaked with algae in one place; black sheer jagged limestone cliffs and tooth-like rock formations in another. In the hub of the energy industry in Wales, we saw campions, Maids of Honour, cornflowers, bluebells and lots of others I couldn't name, a swan nesting, and a family of jays too young to fly. Further north, the coast path hugs the edges of cliffs so tightly that mile after mile you experience sheer plunges and fantastic rock formations and caves demonstrating coastal erosion in action.
20Hold these images as you think about how we should fashion a sustainable future. Nature is in peril with an unprecedented loss of species in our lifetime; we humans are part of the natural world, yet we behave as if we are apart, elevated, entitled to risk our and the planet’s future as a sustainable home on a daily basis with actions funded by world governments adding to, rather than reducing harm. Very simply, we are all in peril if we don’t act on the polycrises of nature and climate yet leadership in current governments is hard to find. But this has not always been the case and the question is: what will it take to make people act?
21One of the tenets of the Attlee post World War II Labour government in the UK in 1945 was to create a vision of opportunity for the next generation and beyond. Picking up the pieces after six long war years, the voters wanted an end to wartime austerity. The country might be broke, but they wanted hope. And they voted in their millions for a collective vision for a fairer future where no-one was left behind.
22It is interesting to reflect on the values system that drove those votes. The war generation wanted their children to succeed to make up for their ultimate sacrifice; to have lives without war, without want, with opportunity, with employment, with decent housing. For much of my life, our society did become richer, more equal, more progressive. Under the Labour Government between 1997 and 2010, our life expectancy grew, child poverty decreased, education improved and our horizons expanded, particularly with the freedom to live, work and play in Europe and the politics of social cohesion – and we had arguably the best health service in the world, the NHS, beloved by the people.
- 10 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, Belknap Press, 1971. Inspired from Luke 6 :31.
23But I’ve also spent years feeling that my generation is a bad ancestor. We should have been the standard-bearers for hope, fairness, stability and opportunity, our post war European inheritance, but instead what I see today is an erosion of that vision: young people who are poorer, less likely than my generation to be home-owners or to have pensions. If you are under 35 now, you have probably acquired thousands in student debt, had your wages held down by austerity and seen public services and opportunities shrink. You and your friends were probably furloughed during the pandemic, with your education on hold, living in poor accommodation and now, worried about the cost of living – of food, of energy and the gap between the costs and your ability to pay. More of you are seeking mental health support than ever before. More of you are disenfranchised from politics than ever before, not least for its failure to tackle the existential issues of the day – the twin climate and nature crises. Fewer of you trust the UK media. Or politicians. Fewer of you vote. Democracy is under attack. Perhaps now is the time to press a re-set button in the UK and elsewhere to ensure that future generations do not continue to pay a further price for the inability of my generation to think long term. As John Rawls, the American philosopher says: “Do unto future generations what you would have had past generations do unto you.10”
- 11 United Nations, Common Principles for Futures Generations, Chief Executive Board for Coordination, (...)
- 12 Permanent Missions of the Netherlands and Fiji to the UN, Elements Paper for the Declaration for Fu (...)
24Wales may still be the only country in the world with a law to protect current and future generations alongside each other, but the appetite is growing. Scotland and Ireland are considering similar legislation and are joined with Wales, New Zealand, Iceland and Canada in the ‘WEGo’ governments committed to a well-being led economy. This year [2023], the United Nations has set up a new Envoy for Future Generations, and the UN General Assembly has adopted Common Principles for Future Generations,11 defining future generations are “all those generations that do not yet exist, are yet to come and who will eventually inherit this planet.12” This commitment now ensures that all decisions taken by UN agencies and its workforce of 100,000 will need to apply a future generations mindset.
25The 4th Welsh General Election took place on 5th May 2011. This was the first election that enabled Welsh politicians to propose new primary legislation to the people of Wales in the areas in which it had responsibility. I was successful in persuading my political party, the Welsh Labour Party - with the strong support of the civil society members of the 30-member strong Sustainable Development Alliance, particularly WWF, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and the international development organisations – to propose in its manifesto what is now the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. We had been promoting sustainable development since our inception in 1999 but my decade as a minister had taught me that if we were serious, we had to have a duty to deliver. I therefore proposed an act which would: require the Welsh Government and all its public services to ‘deliver’ sustainable development; that it would be audited in the same way as all public services; that Welsh Government would also be accountable under the Act and that there would be an independent Commissioner who would be a critical friend but with powers to hold all the authorities to account.
26These new powers were a watershed moment for Wales. Law is different to policy. Law has a firmer intention behind it and requires delivery. My next key priority was to make absolutely sure that my proposed law would go into the legislative Programme for Government, without which it could not be made at all!
- 13 Victoria Jenkins, op. cit.
27This was not the first time legislation had been proposed either – although it would be the first time that it would be delivered. In 2002, Victoria Jenkins, Lecturer in Law at Swansea University, evaluated the then current mechanisms. Her conclusion was “If the government is truly committed to the achievement of sustainable development, it must recognize that it can only be achieved if it is accepted as its primary aim” and therefore there must be “an overriding primary statutory duty for all public bodies to ‘contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.”13
- 14 Andrea Ross, “It’s Time to Get Serious – Why Legislation is Needed to Make Sustainable Development (...)
28The second academic legal contribution came from Andrea Ross from the Dundee University School of Law. In 2010 she had evaluated the existing legislative models in Wales, Canada and Scotland, concluding that while legislation that adopts the Sustainable Development Commission’s vision of sustainable development as the central organizing principle of governance in the UK is “desperately needed and arguably is the only way forward, it may take the UK administrations a while to be willing to give this legislative backing. It will likely take the courts longer still.”14 This was a prescient observation. In politics it is easy to commit verbally to a climate emergency for example, but somebody then has to translate that into regulation and action. When you are leading the pack with an idea, good practice is not always easily available!
- 15 Peter Roderick, The National Assembly for Wales and Taking the Longer View, Cardiff, WWF Cymru, 201 (...)
29The third key legal input, specific to the new Welsh opportunity, came from Peter Roderick, a public interest environmental barrister, legal adviser to Friends of the Earth and Co-Director of the Climate Justice Programme. Peter was commissioned by WWF to articulate what an act delivering on the proposition I had put forward in our manifesto might look like translated into law and his views were essential in the final act. In his paper, The National Assembly for Wales and Taking the Longer View,15 published in June 2011, he proposed an act with three limbs:
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Firstly, Requiring Welsh ministers to exercise their duties and powers in order to achieve sustainable development, to adopt a sustainable development strategy, to make sustainable development the central organizing principle of government and by enacting the precautionary principle;
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Secondly, the Act should acknowledge the existence of environmental limits expressly, and Wales’ need to keep within them, by starting to establish a system respecting planetary boundaries which would evolve over time;
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Thirdly, the Act should put the Commissioner for Sustainable Futures on a statutory footing as a strong and independent champion of the environment and future generations, with significant powers and duties.
30The legislative process did start in the first year and then took three years and four ministers to go onto the statute book.
31The process of developing the legislation involved extensive public consultations, the preparation of green and white papers and a national conversation on ‘The Wales We Want’ which involved thousands of people through public forums and social media. During this lengthy process, the Welsh Government drew heavily on international evidence, models and experience, not least the contemporaneous process under way through the United Nations to replace the Millennium Development Goals (2000–15) with the Sustainable Development Goals (2015–30).
- 16 Welsh Government, A Sustainable Wales, Better Choices for a Better Future, Cardiff, Welsh Governmen (...)
32John Griffiths, then Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development from 2011 to 2013, was the first minister charged with delivering the new commitment (at the time called a Sustainable Development Bill). He published a green discussion paper at the end of 2011 to test the appetite of public sector partners for the terms of engagement. Key questions included the definition of sustainable development and the nature of the duty to be imposed. Should it be a duty to produce a strategy, or a duty to comply, or a duty to have regard, or a duty to assess decision making, etc? What should be in the legislation and therefore enduring and what should be in regulations and therefore changeable? How should compliance be measured? What decisions should it affect? At what level should the duty operate? What should the new sustainable development body look like? The responses to these questions led to the first Proposals for a Sustainable Development Bill (ie a White Paper) published in May 201216, in the same year that world governments met again in Rio de Janeiro for Rio +20, 20 years after the original Earth Summit that had proposed Agenda 21.
- 17 Welsh Government, Proposals for a Sustainable Development Bill, Summary of Consultation Responses, (...)
33Civil society in Wales, as represented by all the key voluntary organisations and umbrella groupings, from the outset was very supportive of the direction of travel, describing the White Paper as an “amazing opportunity to put global social justice and environmental protection at the heart of the Government of Wales”17 but also calling for specific strong measures in the Bill to ensure that the new duty should:
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clearly define sustainable development.
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require Welsh Government Ministers and the devolved public sector to exercise their duties and powers to achieve sustainable development, both within Wales and with regard to the impacts internationally (stress mine).
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be supplemented by a national strategy (or strategies) to lead to clear actions to:
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drive down carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.
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create and sustain green jobs.
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promote ethical, fair trade and sustainable procurement by the public sector.
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drive sustainable and ethical action by businesses that are supported by Welsh Government in relation to their activities domestically and internationally.
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explicitly recognize and give regard to the international impacts of Wales, such as the supply chains of the Welsh public and private sectors – both in terms of carbon intensity, food security etc; the activities of Welsh businesses abroad and the carbon emissions produced in Wales.
34The old chestnut of sustainable development being seen as an environmental issue was starting to get in the way as the proposals for the Bill developed, with many inside and outside government being lobbied hard by the environmental and the international development sectors. In the next Cabinet reshuffle, the portfolio responsibility moved to Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, a position held by Jeff Cuthbert from June 2013 to September 2014, then Lesley Griffiths until 2016. This was an explicit move to highlight the importance of social justice as a key sustainability issue, an issue at the heart of Welsh Government concerns. Jeff Cuthbert questioned the very name of the ‘Sustainable Development Bill’ on the basis that it would mean nothing to his constituents in one of the poorest constituencies in Wales and it was this questioning that led to the agenda being retitled ‘Well-being of Future Generations’.
35The input of the independent Commissioner for Future Generations, Peter Davies, was fundamental to the direction of travel for the Bill as he realised that the government needed to convince what might be a sceptical public in Wales that this potential Welsh law was the right thing to do. In February 2014, he therefore launched ‘The Wales we Want’, a national conversation with the people and communities across Wales led from outside government. The conversation was entitled ‘The Wales we Want’ to reflect the context of the UN’s ‘The World we Want’ ongoing conversation on the new Sustainable Development Goals. Through the conversation, people were asked about the Wales they wanted to leave behind for their children and grandchildren and to consider the challenges, aspirations and ways to solve long term problems to create the Wales they want by 2050.
36The ‘Wales we Want’ was preceded by a national launch at which Michael Sheen, Hollywood actor, UNICEF UK ambassador and proud son of Port Talbot, passionately spoke about his commitment to the future type of Wales that he wanted to pass on to the next generation and beyond.18 His support had a very positive effect galvanising people across Wales. A network of Futures Champions was established, representing different geographical communities and communities of interest. Michael hoped passionately that the Future Generations Bill would allow creative opportunities to the abundance of the Welsh talent that exists. He said:
- 19 Michael Sheen, in David Thorpe, “Michael Sheen starts a National Conversation on Sustainable Develo (...)
If there is truly a desire with this national conversation to understand the long-term issues that future generations might face, a real attempt at engagement with the people of Wales in understanding what are the most important issues for them, in improving their lives and their children’s, and their children’s children, then there must be at the heart of this enterprise the transparency and the honesty to be truly accountable. […] Only then can we face the truth about ourselves and move forwards towards a culture of inclusivity and respect where each life feels important.19
37‘The Wales we Want’ engaged with thousands of people across Wales. Futures Champions came from grass roots’ organisations and raised issues in their locality. At the time the Bill was published, ‘The Wales we Want’ had found climate change was considered by far the single most critical issue, closely followed by environment, employment, education and health – yet at the time, the government did not have climate change as its top priority. People valued local leisure facilities, parks and libraries and yet these were in danger of being sold off by local government, often without real consultation, in times of austerity.
- 20 Cynnal Cymru, The Wales We Want – A report on behalf of future generations, Cardiff, Welsh Governme (...)
38The Wales we Want Report: A report on Behalf of Future Generations20 identified seven foundations for the wellbeing of future generations:
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children need to be given the best start in life from very early years.
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future generations need thriving communities built on a strong sense of place.
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living within global environmental limits, managing our resources efficiently and valuing our environment is critical.
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investing in growing our local economy is essential for the well-being of future generations.
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well-being of all depends on reducing inequality and a greater value on diversity.
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greater engagement in the democratic process, a stronger citizen voice and active participation in decision-making is fundamental to the well-being of future generations.
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celebrating success, valuing our heritage, culture and language will strengthen our identity for future generations.
39These foundations influenced the final iterations of the Bill before it became law. It was this conversation that helped shape the well-being goals in the Well-being of Future Generations Bill which was introduced into the National Assembly in July 2014 for scrutiny and amendment.
40The key purposes of the draft Bill were to:
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set a framework within which specified Welsh public authorities will seek to ensure the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (the sustainable development principle),
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put into place well-being goals which those authorities are to seek to achieve in order to improve wellbeing both now and in the future,
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set out how those authorities are to show they are working towards the well-being goals,
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put Public Services Boards and local well-being plans on a statutory basis and, in doing so, simplify current requirements as regards integrated community planning, and
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establish a Future Generations Commissioner for Wales to be an advocate for future generations who will advise and support Welsh public authorities in carrying out their duties under the Bill. (stress mine)
41The Bill was a cautious attempt by the government lawyers to capture the manifesto commitment, using words like “seek to ensure” and “seek to achieve”. I was pleased to see the core elements at the heart of the legislation were those I had proposed and that civil society had proposed. What we (civil society and I) needed to do was to turn ‘seek to ensure’ into a requirement to deliver. There was a shaky moment or two with a number of senior political and civil service voices arguing that the previous duty was sufficient anyway and some voices were raised to ‘bin the bill’ but government held firm on its manifesto commitment. The Bill was changed and strengthened through its legislative process, largely by the expert inputs from civil society.
42Carl Sargeant, the fourth minister to take on the responsibility was back to Environment. In one sense you could say that this is a normal story of legislative development, even if the legislation itself is unusual. The key factors that led to the Act that we have now include the fact that the Government had a very small majority so relied on a cross party consensus; that civil society through the expert Sustainable Development Alliance was both geared up, well informed, well researched, legally armed (and therefore dangerous) and very effective in arguing its position and getting support for that position; that the Sustainable Futures Commissioner was passionate about community engagement therefore the ‘Wales we Want’ conversation was a success, and there was an excellent team of civil servants who wanted the Act to deliver what has been identified time and time again through effectiveness reviews – the lack of an effective mechanism to drive the sustainable development agenda across the civil service.
43The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act is a framework for action, ‘permission to think differently’ but of itself is not compliance led. Being a value-led framework in law at the heart of government is part of its strength, a context for all government activity.
44Delivering on the Act requires a radical transformation in the way government and other public bodies actually operate and take decisions. They must give much more weight to the interests of future generations. Those changes are starting to take hold, but ensuring such challenging change is a task that needs real political leadership, drive and determination.
- 21 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, (Brundtland Report), WCED, 1987 (...)
45What was worth celebrating at the point the Bill became an Act in April 2015, was the number of people who contributed to its development. Wales is a small country, yet thousands of people had engaged with the process. Each minister had contributed a different characteristic reflecting the breadth of the vision; the political parties in the National Assembly, civil society, the Commissioner for Sustainable Futures and ‘The Wales we Want’ exercise all contributed something significant. It is truly an act made in Wales, by Wales for Wales and, notably, it is only in Wales that the Brundtland definition of 198721 has been translated into law, despite its being the most common definition of sustainable development in the world.
46The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act received Royal Assent in 2015 with support from all the parties in the National Assembly for Wales other than the Welsh Conservatives. The Welsh Government said:
- 22 Carl Sargeant, op. cit.
By passing the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we have formally placed sustainable development at the heart of our public services and legislated for a set of goals – linked to the UN’s Global Goals – that set a clear path to a sustainable future.22
- 23 See Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: I (...)
47There are a large number of provisions in the Act, including detailed reporting obligations designed to address the lack of effective structures previously.23 In short, the Act:
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- 24 See the Brundtland definition.
defines the sustainable development principle in line with the 1987 Brundtland Report definition as seeking “to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs24”.
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- 25 Welsh Government, Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, Cardiff, Welsh Government, 2015.
defines ‘sustainable development’ as “the process of improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales25” (the four pillars) by taking action, in accordance with the sustainable development principle with the aim of achieving the well-being goals.
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In pursuing sustainable development, public bodies are required to ‘take account’ of five statutory ways of working; namely, to adopt a long-term perspective, take an integrated approach, involve citizens, collaborate and pursue a preventive approach.
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introduces seven statutory ‘well-being goals’, with legal descriptions of their meaning. In brief, the goals are: a prosperous Wales; a resilient Wales; a healthier Wales; a more equal Wales; a Wales of cohesive communities; a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language; and a globally responsible Wales.
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places a legal obligation on all public bodies in the responsibility of the Welsh Government to “carry out sustainable development”, including a requirement to set and publish ‘well-being objectives’, to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to meet those objectives and to report on progress annually.
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In pursuing sustainable development, public bodies are required to ‘take account’ of five specified ways of working; namely, to adopt a long-term perspective, take an integrated approach, involve citizens, collaborate and pursue a preventive approach.
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creates an independent Future Generations Commissioner with responsibilities to:
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promote the sustainable development principle.
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act as a guardian of the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
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encourage public bodies to take greater account of the long-term impact of their activities.
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monitor and assess the extent to which well-being objectives set by public bodies are being met.
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publish periodically a report on how public bodies can improve the way they pursue their wellbeing objectives and give expression to the principle of sustainable development.
48One of the key areas of discussion in the development of the Act was in relation to the role, powers and authority of the new Future Generations Commissioner proposed in the Act.
49There was substantial debate over the establishment of the Commissioner role from early in the Act’s development. Should it be a Commission, (ie a group of people who meet regularly without an office or wider role) or a Commissioner (with an office and staff)? What should the powers of a commissioner be in a democracy? What powers are legitimate for a commissioner who is non-democratically elected, particularly one appointed by government, to have over others, such as public services officials and appointees or democratically elected others, that is, elected local authority members? What should the powers for intervention be? What should be the balance between critical friend functions and holding to account functions? Civil society fought hard for a robust right of inquiry – called ‘power of review’ in the Act. This was so the Commissioner could investigate systemic problems and be able to require information from named Public Bodies for that purpose. At the moment, this is not in place, but this discussion will remain live and be influenced by events that may not have been envisaged yet.
50A commissioner, ratified by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) is appointed for a single seven- year term. They have a number of obligations including publishing a statutory (ie the Commissioner must publish) ‘Future Generations Report’ a year before Welsh General Elections containing their assessment of the improvements public bodies should make to achieve the wellbeing goals as required by the Act. The first one was published in 2020. The first Commissioner, Sophie Howe, a very strong advocate of the Act at home and abroad, stood down at the end of her 7-year term early in 2023. The second Commissioner, Derek Walker is pledged to ensure the Act is fully embedded in public services by the end of his term. The Future Generations Commissioner’s Office is an excellent resource.
51A question I’m often asked is how can you tell that Wales is governed differently because of the Act? The reply is that there are now many individual policy examples which are very different from England: ending physical punishment for children for example, or the Universal Basic Income pilot for care-leavers; introduction of voting at the age of 16, the elected Wales Youth Parliament; accelerating action on climate change through the Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group and nature positive action; its focus on social enterprises including for its main water company Dwr Cymru; its new schools curriculum from 3-18 which aims to create ‘ethical informed citizens of Wales and the world’; 20mph speed limits to keep communities safe. These are examples that clearly show that Wales is already beginning to be governed differently because of the Act. The nature of civic discussion has changed and the evolving culture change that it seeds and supports. The more prevalent the Act becomes in the public sphere, the more the government and public services will be held to account by the people of Wales.
- 26 The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group was established in January 2023 to examine potential pathwa (...)
52I certainly feel confident in saying that the Well-being of Future Generations Act has led to the formal cross-party initiative that established the independent Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group which I am currently chairing.26 We have been asked to define pathways to accelerate a fair and just nature positive net zero in Wales from its current legislative target of 2050 to 2035. That places Wales among the most ambitious countries in the world in acting on climate. We are looking for evidence from across the world to help us achieve 10-year emission reduction deliverable pathways.
53The Act is still new. There is a need to develop better ways to achieve learning (including from mistakes), measure change (tracking the journey) and audit budgets (ensuring fitness for purpose). The Act enables a new approach to governance: less of the way in which government traditionally operates (top-down, command and control) and more collaborative and participative – without which the desired well-being outcomes will be elusive.
54The test will be when the Act threatens a government’s own desires. To some extent this has already happened, with a proposed motorway (M4 Relief Road) and the current government’s decision not to support it because of its environmental consequences. A similar test may well come from the Welsh Government’s ownership and management of Cardiff Airport – the same government that was the first in the U.K. to declare a climate emergency. These decisions are part of the complexity of government and require appropriately complex considerations – and they may also present new opportunities. Could Cardiff Airport, a government airport, lead on the development of alternative aviation fuel sources arising out of by-products from the steel industry? If others follow Wales’ example in legislating for future generations, there will be more opportunities for the collaborative airing of such issues and learning how to tackle such problems in the future.
55The fundamental test of the Act must be whether it changes Wales’ footprint on this single planet of ours. But this must be a collective journey with the people of Wales, that takes the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives on the way. Less developed (poorer) countries have smaller footprints and greater poverty, and that is not a desired outcome – but making Wales safer, healthier, kinder, more tolerant, more equal, more prosperous, all within environmental limits, is. The opportunity is ours to take and we should take it with gusto, holding our heads high in delivering on our commitment to future generations. This should be a fundamental source of national pride and ambition, not a wrangle between bodies about how little action they can get away with!
- 27 See earlier, Nikhil Seth, Head of Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme UND (...)
56Passing an Act does not of itself make change even if Wales catapulted into global recognition following Royal Assent on the 29th of April 2015. The UN said: “What Wales does today, the world will do tomorrow.”27 The opportunity now lies with the current and future governments and the people of Wales to demonstrate that decision-making in Wales is different because of their Act and that future historians will see action commensurate with the Act’s ambition, not least on climate change.