Here’s my conversation with Jane Davidson, the former Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, and Assembly Member for Pontypridd in the Welsh Assembly, known as the Welsh Assembly/Senedd Cymru.
Jane’s stated mission is to mainstream sustainability and she lives this with conviction on her smallholding in West Wales. We get behind her stellar list of achievements as a politician, to understand the woman, her convictions, her drive to improve well-being for all, and where her deep-rooted passion for the natural world began.
Jane’s career demonstrated that conviction politicians can change things fundamentally, and for the good of everyone. She was Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning between 2000 and 2007), during which time she introduced transformative educational reforms including the Foundation Phase for 3-7 year-olds, the Welsh Baccalaureate, and integrated Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship into the Welsh curriculum.
As Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing between 2007 and 2011 Jane was the architect of groundbreaking legislation to make sustainable development the central organising principle of Welsh government, legislation which ultimately became the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This legislation has proved to be internationally significant well beyond the UK - a benchmark for the world.
Jane’s more publically known environmental initiatives included introducing the world’s first plastic bag charge, implementing recycling regulations that elevated Wales to second best in the world for municipal recycling, creating the Climate Change Commission for Wales, and establishing the Wales Coast Path.
