EPISODE SUMMARY
Ensuring we think about the needs of future generations is something Sophie Howe has been doing on behalf of the Welsh Government for the past 6 years. As the worlds first Future Generations Commissioner Sophie’s remit has been wide ranging, from transport to health, the environment to education. Join Niki and her co-host and Shadow Environment Minister for the UK Government, Alex Sobel MP as they hear Sophie’s reflections as she finishes her term and discuss how the UK Government are planning for future generations.
EPISODE NOTES
With a remit set out in law to be “the guardian of the interests of future generations in Wales”, Sophie Howe is the world’s only Future Generations Commissioner. Her role is to provide advice to the Government and other public bodies in Wales on delivering social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being for current and future generations and assessing and reporting on how they are delivering.
Sophie, a mum of five named number five on Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour’s Power List, took up post in 2016 and has led high profile interventions around transport planning, education reform and climate change challenging the Government and others to demonstrate how they are taking account of future generations. Her interventions have secured fundamental changes to land use planning policy, major transport schemes and Government policy on housing – ensuring that decisions taken today are fit for the future.
Co-hosted by Alex Sobel MP, Shadow Environment Minister to the UK Government, in this episode we explore the role of the Future Generations Commissioner in Wales, what the plans are for similar roles in the devolved nations of the UK and more broadly, how we consider our future generations through our policy and legislative routes.
Click the links below for more information:
Sophie’s TED talk
The Office for Environmental Protection Report
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
This episode is transcribed to provide wider access to the content of the pod.
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