ENERGY AND GREENER FUTURE STRATEGY
South Yorkshire is set to have a greener, cleaner and more sustainable future – and boost the economic recovery from COVID.
The Energy Strategy (PDF 6.6Mb) outlines how the region could achieve its ambition to be at net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, ten years before the goal set by Government. The target was set following former Mayor Dan Jarvis’s declaration of a Climate Emergency in South Yorkshire in November 2019.
The Strategy is based on collaboration between academia, businesses and South Yorkshire communities, and includes plans to ensure no new homes use fossil fuels by 2025, a zero-emission public transport fleet by 2035, and at least five mine water schemes, which use water from former mines to heat nearby homes and communities, by 2040.
It also includes ambitions to create 3,500 jobs and training opportunities in the low carbon and renewable energy sector, and to cut car miles by a quarter – a goal supported by a separate plan from Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey to create more than 1000km of cycling and walking routes in the region over the next 20 years.
Investment in the green economy, low-carbon energy and Active Travel are all included in the Renewal Action Plan (PDF, 10mb) which sets out a roadmap for economic recovery from COVID and is designed as a down payment for an ambitious ‘New Deal for the North’ that Mayor Jarvis has proposed for the wider region. But both the RAP and the Energy Strategy rely on investment from both Government and the private sector.
The Strategy is also designed to support local enterprises and build on South Yorkshire’s powerful assets as a heartland of British industry.
South Yorkshire is already home to a hydrogen refuelling station, with research taking place that could lead to a hydrogen-powered, zero emission bus network of the future. Meanwhile, the University of Sheffield Energy Institute’s new Translational Energy Research Centre, which will open later this year, will give start-ups, regional and global companies access to advanced facilities for low carbon energy research.
In February representatives from the region’s local authorities, universities, trade unions and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office met for the first time to discuss a joined up approach to tackling the challenges of the Climate Emergency in South Yorkshire.
The group, known as SCR:NZ will work with local businesses, community and environmental groups and the SYMCA's Youth Combined Authority to work towards the 2040 net zero target. They are working in partnership with environment and energy experts to draw up a detailed plan on how the region can achieve its net zero targets.
Read the full Energy Strategy document (PDF, 6.6Mb)
