City set to spend £43m to tackle climate, floods and air pollution

A YORKSHIRE city with a “reputation for innovation” has committed to investing £43m in measures for the “compromise, sacrifice and change” essential to tackling the global climate crisis.

Sheffield Council’s move follows its declaration of a climate emergency a year ago, accompanied by a target to become carbon neutral by 2030.

New and continuing projects – some of which have just been confirmed – will contribute to reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and “strengthening the city’s resilience” against the impact of climate change, according to the authority.

Almost £40m of the funding from the council’s capital budget is being put towards flood resilience and greener transport infrastructure.

Coun Mark Jones, the cabinet member for environment, streetscene and climate change, claimed Sheffield has a “history and reputation for innovation and cutting-edge industry”, including its proud heritage of steel production.

He added: “This is a global emergency that affects every single living thing and each of us must take responsibility and make changes to improve our future.

“Addressing this at a city level is an enormous challenge. We can’t fix it overnight. It requires compromise, sacrifice and change from everyone. There will be some very difficult decisions and choices to make in order to reach our goal.”

He added: “There is a huge amount of work already taking place or in development. You won’t always be able to see it or realise how it contributes to our climate change commitments, but I can guarantee that this is our priority and we’re working

Coun Mark Jones, cabinet member for Environment, Streetscene and Climate Change, extremely hard to build clean initiatives into everything we do.”

More than £18m is being spent to improve the city’s resilience against the risk of flooding, which is expected to rise as a result of climate change.

Meanwhile, more than £19m will go towards creating sustainable travel infrastructure for walking, cycling and bus travel. And £100,000 is to be invested for “wider stakeholder engagement”.

Part of this is a Citizens Assembly, commissioned to consider the actions needed to meet Sheffield’s 2030 target.

It will include representation from “all parts of the city” and is expected to start from June.

A “specialist partner” organisation will be commissioned to work on a Zero Carbon Plan to develop the evidence for the city’s Climate Citizens Assembly. It will provide details on the specific options and actions required to achieve net zero emissions in Sheffield within a decade.

The authority aims to “completely decarbonise” its own infrastructure – including council homes, offices and its transport fleet.

There is a huge amount of work already taking place...