The Green Party’s co-leader has called on North East councils to be more “ambitious” in their action to combat climate change.
Carla Denyer was in the region on Tuesday as her party pushes to make major gains at next month’s local elections. The Greens are targeting big success in areas like Darlington and South Tyneside, where they already have some council seats, and want to get their first councillors elected in others including Newcastle and Gateshead.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service while on the campaign trail in Crawcrook, Ms Denyer said that North East authorities who had declared climate emergencies must start enacting more “ambitious policies” to reach net zero.
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The Bristol councillor, who authored Europe’s first climate emergency declaration in 2018, said: “My motion in Bristol brought Bristol’s target date for net zero down from 2050 to 2030 and a lot of other councils, I think around 80% in the UK now, have followed my lead and put forward similar declarations – including here in Gateshead. However, the trouble is that we often don’t see that followed through with concrete action to reduce carbon emissions. In a lot of councils we see consultants being commissioned, plans and strategies being published, but not much in the way of firm action to reduce carbon emissions now.
“I would say to council leaders across this region and across the country that, in many cases, we know what needs to happen. We know that we need to insulate people’s homes to not only bring down their carbon emissions, but also their bills, and give them warmer and more comfortable homes.
“We need to make it easier for people to travel by public transport, walking, and cycling because a big chunk of people relying on their car don’t want to be – they want to switch to modes of transport that are better for the climate and better for their health, if the facilities are there.
“There is lots that local councils can do right now. Yes there is a place for strategies and plans and consultants’ reports, but in many cases we know what needs to happen so let’s get on and do it.”
This year has seen the introduction of the new Clean Air Zone (CAZ) around Newcastle city centre, which imposes daily tolls on some older, high-polluting vehicles in an effort to slash illegal pollution levels. Unlike Bristol’s equivalent, the Tyneside charging area does not affect private cars – with only buses, coaches, taxis, and lorries affected for now, with vans to follow this summer.
Asked if the CAZ was strict enough to combat Newcastle’s emissions problems, Ms Denyer said she was not sure of the exact calculations made to assess the tolls’ impact here but that air pollution is a “big issue for people’s health”.
The former Durham University student, who later visited Whitley Bay in her whistle-stop North East tour, added: “I have heard that air pollution causes 300 or 400 premature deaths [per year] in Tyneside and it is a similar number in Bristol, where I am a councillor.
“300 or 400 people dying prematurely every year because of air pollution – if that were the case with our drinking water there would be an outrage, but for some reason because it is our air those in power have not taken action until now. It is really important to have a Clean Air Zone and get those illegal levels of pollution down.”
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