This episode was recorded as a live broadcast on the 1st December 2021.
Moderated by:
Guto Harri – Communications consultant and political commentator
On the panel:
Sophie Howe – Future Generations Commissioners for Wales. With a remit set out in law to be “the guardian of the interests of future generations in Wales”, Sophie is the world’s only Future Generations Commissioner. Described by The Guardian as the “World’s first minister of the Unborn”, 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 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. Described by the Big Issue Magazine as one of the UK’s leading Changemakers, 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. She has represented Wales at the UN the OECD and on a number of International Forums including Chairing the Network of Institutions for Future Generations.
Mymuna Soleman – activist, a spoken word artist, trainer and educator, poetry lover and passionate about all things equality and diversity. She completed both her degrees, a Bachelors in Health and Social Care and a Masters Public Health, at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She’s the founder of the Privilege Café, a virtual space where she challenges people to use their privilege for good.
Dan Tram – Chartered Civil Engineer, Arup; Alumnus of the Future Generations Leadership Academy. Dan is a young leader from Cardiff passionate about sustainable development, with a total of 5 years’ experience in the water industry. Dan has led several city and town centre sustainable drainage projects in Wales that capture and treat polluted road runoff through innovative, nature-based solutions, helping to address the environmental and socio-economic challenges of today and the future. Dan was selected to be on the first Future Generations Leadership Academy where he met influential leaders, developed his own leadership skills and learned about and how the built environment can embed the principles of the Wellbeing of Future Generation Act into its projects.
Rebecca Williams – Assistant Director of Conservation, National Trust Wales. Raised on a dairy farm in Pembrokeshire, Rebecca gained a law degree from Cardiff University and after a career taking in various strands of Welsh Government rural and agricultural policy and legislation, she joined the UK Government’s fast-stream programme. She played an instrumental role in the Living Wales Programme to create Natural Resources Wales in 2013 and her time as Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales gave her great insight into how governments function and decisions are made. As Director of CLA Cymru, she drew on her broad range of roles dealing with issues affecting rural businesses and communities and her knowledge of Welsh and UK Governments to get the best for Welsh landowners, farmers and rural businesses. Whilst at the CLA, Rebecca established herself as a respected voice and commentator on rural issues and Brexit and was recently an independent member for Wales on the Bew Review on the allocation of EU Convergence Funding across the UK. Recently appointed a Trustee for ‘Size of Wales’ – a unique Welsh charity with a mission to sustain an area of tropical forest twice the size of Wales as part of the national response to climate change.