MAYOR RESPONDS TO CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDATIONS ON TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE

Published 13 March 2025 at 2:55pm

South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, has announced his response to recommendations made by the pioneering Citizens’ Assembly on how to tackle climate change in the region and create a thriving South Yorkshire. 

The Assembly, made up of 100 people carefully selected to be representative of South Yorkshire, voted on 14 proposals for the Mayor to consider.

Today, speaking to an invited audience that included members of the Assembly, the Mayor highlighted the work that is underway to implement many of the recommendations in areas such as transport, trees, green skills and Active Travel. 

Amongst the new funding being made by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is an additional £403,000 for training in green skills for people who attend a Skills Bootcamp, and £118,000 for Green Estate to create an Advanced Urban Resilience Centre.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said:

“I’ve made no secret of the fact I want to do politics differently. The views of people right across South Yorkshire have to be central to how we tackle the big challenges we face. Here, we do politics with people not to people.
“The range of the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations make the complexity of the challenge clear. They grappled with the issues and voted to support some big and ambitious proposals.

“Involving our communities in developing the solutions we need is critical, and that’s what we’re doing here in South Yorkshire.”

One of the Assembly’s recommendations was support for initiatives to explore the benefits of the circular economy. The new funding for an Advanced Urban Resilience Centre aims to find solutions that will allow people and places to become more green and resilient.

An integrated travel infrastructure for e-bikes, scooters and pedestrians was another one of the recommendations. The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is currently developing a  new Transport Plan which will set out how it will integrate all modes of transport in the region.

The Citizens’ Assembly challenged the Mayor to deliver 1.4 million trees in South Yorkshire and even exceed this target. This is one of the Mayor’s priorities and 100,000 trees were planted last year, with plans to plant more over the coming years. 

The Mayor’s speech also outlined plans to hold a new Youth Climate Assembly.

And he said that during this year, the Mayor’s Business Advisory Board will establish a new Better Business Charter that will embed the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations in its work with businesses across South Yorkshire.   

The full list of recommendations and the Mayor’s response can be found here.