Dr. Mark Mellett:

The Deputy makes a great point. It perhaps goes back to what I said in my opening statement about this nation being sea blind. We do not have a maritime culture institutionalised in the State. I often say it goes back to Article 6 of the treaty, which stated that until we have the wherewithal to provide our own coastal defence, it would be provided by his majesty's imperial forces and so the State set sail. We are here now and we have a remarkable framework for the management of actual and potential aggression, MAPA. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, has been established for only the past four months. Its desire to be progressive in bringing forward this initiative is palpable every time I meet its executive. The Government's framework includes 3 GW, which is already covered in phase 1. Another 5 GW will be included in phase 2, and 2 GW of that will be designated to green hydrogen. That will bring us to 7 GW. There is ambition for 2030. Thereafter, the future framework includes a further 30 GW. That is the vision from the Government.

The designation of areas for that production is something that certainly exercises me. I know that industry wants to see those developments. At the same time, we must be sure that due diligence is done in the process of designating areas for the sake of the stakeholders and so that our duty to provide a good environmental status is protected. We must ensure the optimal roadmap with a view to realising the ambition of 37 GW by 2050. There is not much time because of the pressure with regard to carbon. We need to be expeditious in our decisions. We are doing our best to do that.

I am conscious that the market is a little frustrated with the shift from an industry-led or developer-led approach to the plan-led approach. At the end of the day, however, the sovereign rights over the jurisdiction of the seabed belong to the citizens of the State. The Government acts on behalf of the citizens by allocating those sovereign rights to developers. There is only one way to do it, which is through a governmental plan-led approach. The institutions of the State are moving as quickly as possible to become integrated and deliver certainty. We are in a race with other jurisdictions, besides the need to offset our carbon. We need to try to hook the market to ensure it can see the long-term opportunities. I said in my opening remarks that there are hundreds of gigawatts of potential in our jurisdiction. If we look at population maps, we can see where the centres of rich populations are globally. In the northern hemisphere, there is only one jurisdiction that is adjacent to a wind resource that is greater than 10 m/s. That is off the Irish coast. There are other jurisdictions with plenty of energy, such as the top of the Himalayas, in the very deep water to the east of Japan and on the west coast of Canada, where the population is low. The prize is there for this State if it is to succeed. We are certainly not going to be found wanting in terms of leadership. We will work with other State bodies to ensure we meet the requirement of the Government.