National Infrastructure Commission for Wales meeting notes: 15 December 2021

15:00 – 17:00

Via Zoom
 

David Clubb, Chair 

Tom Crick, Commissioner

Ceri Doyle, Commissioner

Stephen Gifford, Commissioner
 
Rob Irvine, Commissioner

Neil Hemington, Head of Planning, Welsh Government

Adrian Davies, NICW Secretariat

Poppy Stowell-Evans, Chair of the Youth Climate Ambassadors Wales

Georgia Hughes, Chair of the Emerging Professionals Group, Association for Consultancy & Engineering (ACE)
 

Edward Sherriff, Deputy Director for Energy, Welsh Government 

Helen Howells, Commissioner

Eluned Parrott, Commissioner

1. The Chair welcomed commissioners to the meeting. 
2. The Chair set out his engagements since the last meeting.
3. The Chair thanked Ceri Doyle for her contribution since she would be standing down from the commission after the meeting.

1. The Chair welcomed Poppy Stowell-Evans and Georgia Hughes and explained that the commission wished to improve its engagement with young people and would be interested to hear about good practice from other areas.
2. Poppy felt that young people would be interested in engaging with NICW if the commission provided more information about its work. NICW could do this is a number of ways such as use of: 
   • social media
   • existing groups and networks, and
   • youth ambassadors
3. Georgia described the benefit of diversity of thought to be achieved by harnessing the passion of young people. Georgia recommended that a clear remit and the provision of coaching and mentoring would help young people to engage effectively.
4. By making connections to the school curriculum, NICW could create opportunities to engage young people in collaborative co-creation.
5. The Chair thanked Poppy and Georgia for sharing their experiences which had inspired him to be as youth friendly as possible.

1.  The Chair welcomed Ed Sherriff and explained that commissioners were keen to consider how NICW could contribute to enabling a transition to renewable energy.
2. Ed shared the Welsh Government’s written statement and recommendations and described the process and conclusions of the review:
   •    Written Statement: Outcome of the Deep Dive into Renewable Energy (8 December 2021)
   •    Renewable energy deep dive: recommendations 
3. Officials were now working on an action plan for implementation of the recommendations.
4. Commissioners discussed some of the opportunities and challenges arising from the report.
5. The meeting concluded that areas where NICW might contribute included:
   •    potential to influence partners working at a UK level
   •    development of ports, and
   •    potential to attract additional financial investment to Wales.