Leaders of Greater Brighton have welcomed the government’s announcement of a 10-point green plan and reaffirmed the region is ready to lead the UK into a clean growth future.
The Prime Minister last week unveiled his plan to help the country reach a zero-emissions target by 2050 and pledged another £4bn spending towards the green projects. Chief among the announcements was an end to the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, increases in wind farm capacity and a step up in projects to stop carbon release into the atmosphere.
Just a month before the Greater Brighton City Region announced its own GB10 pledges on the environment which closely echo many of the government’s priorities.
Among the GB10 pledges are the backing of the establishment of a carbon capturing kelp forest off the coast of Sussex, the phasing out of all member authority diesel cars by 2025, and the creation of low carbon heating networks for all new homes.
Today the chairman of the Greater Brighton Economic Board, Cllr Daniel Humphreys and the chairman of the Region’s Infrastructure Panel, Ian McAulay, said they awaited further details of the government’s announcement but welcomed the commitment to tangible action on climate change.
In a joint statement they said:
“We were pleased to see this development, putting clean growth job creation at the front of an economic recovery post-Covid and, even more importantly, taking action to help fight the climate crisis we are undoubtedly facing.
“By launching our own GB10 pledges last month we showed that we have been thinking long and hard about our own response to climate change and importantly already taking action. GB10 represents an unprecedented collaboration between local authorities, businesses and educational institutions to take collective action that will make a difference.
“The pledges position Greater Brighton at the forefront of this new era of clean growth and we are ready and willing to join with the government in this truly vital approach to delivering a better future. The wellbeing of our planet absolutely depends on thousands of different actions being taken now. We will continue to play our part, however small, in this global effort.”
Mr McAulay, is chairman of the Region’s Infrastructure Panel which brings together energy and water experts from across member organisations to deliver clean growth projects.
All Greater Brighton members, seven local authorities, the South Downs National Park, business partnerships and two reading universities, signed up to the GB10 in October.