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Environment correspondent, BBC Wales News
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The UK’s climate change advisors have criticised the handling of a switch to greener steelmaking at the country’s largest plant in Port Talbot, which resulted in huge job losses.
Government ministers should have been better at planning ahead and making sure other green jobs were available locally, the experts said.
The independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) has set out its latest advice on how Wales reaches net zero – with a push for more electric vehicles, heat pumps and tree planting.
The Welsh and UK governments said they had been working together to develop “a strong vision” for the region’s future and deliver “our clean energy superpower mission”.
More than 2,000 jobs were lost at Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks following the closure of its blast furnaces in 2024.
The move brought an end to traditional steelmaking at the site, as the company grappled with losses of over £1m a day.
It was given a £500m grant by the UK government and is now investing £1.25bn to build a new electric arc furnace by 2027.
This will recycle scrap metal into new steel products, but requires far fewer workers on site.
The changes will have a dramatic impact on direct emissions of planet-warming gases from Wales.
The blast furnaces were constantly fed with coal, and their closure will have more than halved Wales’ industrial emissions since 2022, according to the CCC.
But environmentalists have warned the situation at Port Talbot could damage public support for