172.This section places a duty on the Welsh Ministers to lay a statement before the National Assembly for Wales on the final figures for the net Welsh emissions account during a budgetary period these figures are used to determine whether a budget has been met.
173.Subsections (2) to (6) place a duty on the Welsh Ministers to provide information on:
under subsection (2), the total amounts of Welsh emissions, Welsh removals and net Welsh emissions for each greenhouse gas (each of the gases included in the target – see section 36);
under subsection (3), the total amount of carbon units that have been credited to or debited from the Welsh emissions account in that budgetary period, and details of the number and type of those units;
under subsection (4), the final amount of the net Welsh emissions account for the budgetary period;
under subsection (5), whether the Welsh Ministers have decided to bank a surplus from the previous budget or to borrow from the next budget (using the power in section 40) and, if so, the amount banked or borrowed;
under subsection (6), the final amount of the carbon budget for the period.
174.Subsection (7) provides that the question of whether the budget has been met is to be determined by reference to the figures in the statement.
175.Subsection (8) requires the Welsh Ministers to provide an explanation of why they consider that the carbon budget has been met or not met.
176.Subsection (9) requires that the statement must include the Welsh Ministers’ assessment of the extent that their proposals and policies (including those set out in the report under section 39) have contributed to the carbon budget for that period and how these have been carried out.
177.Under subsection (10) an assessment must cover the areas of responsibility for each Welsh Minister, which corresponds to the requirements under section 39(2) to include proposals and policies covering the areas of responsibility of each of the Welsh Ministers.
178.Subsections (11) and (12) require that the statement for each carbon budget period to include an estimate of the total amount of emissions, whether in Wales or elsewhere, which are attributable to the consumption and use of goods and services in Wales.