Climate change ‘poses big threat to region’

Commission to examine ways of tackling impact

CLIMATE CHANGE is one of the most serious threats facing Yorkshire and the Humber in coming years, the region has been warned, as the largest regional commission in the UK to tackle the crisis was launched.

A new climate commission, which is to be launched this evening, will act as an independent advisory group to inform Westminster how best the region can respond to the threats brought about by the climate emergency such as flooding, heatwaves, and sea level rise.

Referencing the decline of the mining industry in the 1980s, the commission’s new director, Professor Andy Gouldson, from the University of Leeds, said that Yorkshire “knows all too well what a brutal energy transition feels like from 30 years ago”.

The Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission brings together a team of climate leaders from across the public, private and third sectors, in the largest regional commission of its kind in the UK.

It aims to help the region reduce its carbon emissions as quickly as possible, and ensure that people in Yorkshire are prepared to cope with the growing impacts of climate change.

Prof Gouldson said: “Yorkshire knows all too well what a brutal energy transition feels like from 30 years ago and the last thing we want to do is repeat any aspect of that. It’s really important in this low carbon transition that people are brought with us and there’s no one and nowhere left behind in that process.

“That means identifying the areas and the communities and the businesses and the people who will struggle to adapt to these new climate targets, and helping them to feel some of the benefits of switching to becoming a more climate-friendly region.”

He added: “Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing Yorkshire and the Humber in the coming years.

“Part of the logic of the commission is absolutely to speak for Yorkshire to Westminster and say what we need from national government to enable them to deliver on their promises and us to play our part in it.”

Flooding has been the most visible impact in Yorkshire, and Prof Gouldson said: “Every year there are more and more intense and frequent flooding events. The minimum we need to do is get ready for more of those because we’re locked into a pathway where we’ll have more of that in the future.

“We (Yorkshire) emit more than, I think, seven or eight EU member states, as a region, and we need to do our bit to reduce our emissions to remove the climate change that’s leading to those flooding events.”

However, he said there is also support for energy-intensive industries to decarbonise and improve, and that building a carbon capture storage around Drax would be an example of a beneficial move.