Council challenged on failing Climate targets

Following last week’s Full Council meeting where Jenny Patient asked a question on the occasion of the 6th Anniversary of Sheffield declaring a Climate Emergency, I followed this up with a question to the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee that met today challenging the Committee to amend the Annual Climate Action Report 2023 – 2024 that was on their Agenda.

I asked (in writing)

In 2007 Sheffield Council set its first target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The aim was 30% in 6 years.( Sheffield Star April 7th 2007)  Cabinet Member for Environment Mary Lea said “Labour has pointed to a number of schemes which will help the Council reach the target, including a new car club as well as wind turbines and water power.”  In fact the Council managed 18% reductions, falling from 3.9 to 3.2 mt, mainly due to using less coal.   By 2019 emissions had reduced to 2.3mt.  An estimate for 2024 is 1.8mt. So since declaring a Climate Emergency emissions have reduced by nearly 22%. But the most difficult reductions are still to come and the aim is to get to net zero by 2030. Reductions should be well over 50% if the Council were on target. Last year global temperatures were 1.6C above pre-industrial levels, so we are already at the dangerous stage of global heating scientists warned us not to exceed. We risk tipping points such as the collapse of AMOC, which would plunge the UK into an everlasting Arctic winter. Billions of lives are at stake.   How will the Council get on track to net zero?  (National figures from  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-and-emissions-projections-2023-to-2050  (annex b) Up to 2022 is in local authority figures https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-greenhouse-gasemissions-statistics-2005-to-2022) 

The Council’s response

I received this written response from Cllr Ben Miskell, Chair of the Committee.

We have been clear with the challenges facing us, and open and honest in our reporting of this.  As I set out in the introduction of our first Annual Climate Report last year, ‘the climate emergency is arguably the most significant challenge we face globally. The consequences are already affecting us and will have greater impacts in years to come.’ 

Our report also went on to say that human-led changes to climate and the existential threat it poses to our society and economy are an accepted fact and that from bigger energy and food bills to unpredictable and extreme weather, increased risk of flooding and negative impacts on our health, climate change and energy affects everyone. Our 2023-24 Annual Climate Action Report, being presented at this committee on Wednesday is equally clear and unambiguous in its language, setting out that 2024 was provisionally the fourth warmest year on record for the UK and that 2023 was the fourth wettest on record. 

The latest greenhouse gas emissions data from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero shows that Sheffield reduced emissions by 3.2% since 2021 and 17.2% since our 2017 baseline. Achieving net zero requires sustained momentum, collaboration, and investment across all sectors. While significant progress has been made, the pace of emissions reduction has slowed in certain areas, highlighting the need for accelerated action. As a Council we are taking specific steps. How we live, and where we live, plays an incredibly important role in the climate crisis. We know that as a council, it is council housing which is our biggest carbon emitter and challenge. Councillor Johnson, Chair of Housing, will be best placed to explain the work the Council is doing to decarbonise our estates, and I am sure he would be happy to meet with you given your close connections across the Green Party.  And ensuring that homes are well connected and served by public transport, within sustainable neighbourhoods was a key component of the Local Plan, which is currently with the Planning Inspectorate.  We are working with and will continue to work with our communities and businesses to develop programmes that address the changing climate. To stay on track, we will continue to focus on areas where we can have the most impact, including increasing access to funding and finance, as this will be key to delivering projects on the ground. 

We are working closely with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to secure an integrated settlement from central government that prioritises decarbonisation, resilience, and nature recovery beyond 2026/27 

Our policy framework, including the City Goals, Council Plan, and Growth Plan, provides a strong foundation for action. In 2024, we adopted two additional Decarbonisation Routemaps, and over the coming year, we will complete further thematic routemaps, including business and industrial decarbonisation, alongside developing a Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP). Scaling up existing decarbonisation programmes will be a priority, with a focus on expanding active travel, public transport, and electric vehicle infrastructure, as well as continuing to retrofit social housing and support homeowners in improving energy efficiency.   

However, we recognise that the Council cannot achieve net zero in isolation. We will continue to work with city partners, stakeholders and the new government in Westminster to facilitate action across all sectors and institutions. Securing the necessary investment and policy framework from the government will be critical to delivering our vision for a net-zero climate-resilient future, however, we are pleased with the refreshing change of approach from this new government that shows a commitment to tackling the issue that had been lacking during the past 14 years. Thank you very much for your question and we hope that you will work with us as a city, as we tackle the challenges posed to all of us by a changing climate. As you have identified we need to go further and faster in tackling the climate emergency, and I am pleased that we now have a government who are willing and committed to addressing this to help us deliver. 

Council should amend the Climate Report

At the meeting I was allowed to ask a further supplementary question as long as it was limited to 200 words. I asked

The Government can’t be trusted to tackle Climate Change when they are expanding airports and have U turned from £28b in Green New Deal to concentrating on unproven Carbon Capture and Storage.  The government continue with austerity and will not  provide Councils with the funding required to achieve Net Zero. Council must begin a campaign to secure the necessary resources from Government.  

Please amend the Climate Action Report in two ways ¹.

1. Be transparent about how Sheffield Council have significantly overspent their carbon budget with an increasing deficit each year. Explain that getting to Net Zero by 2030  will need dramatically deeper change than it did 6 years ago. Previous plans need replacing with emergency responses which reflect reality.

2. Explain Hothouse Earth, which is a real possibility now worldwide temperatures are consistently above the 1.5C threshold.  Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions may trigger a series of self-reinforcing feedback loops, leading to a runaway heating effect where global temperatures rise significantly beyond pre-industrial levels, causing massive sea-level rise and rendering large parts of the planet uninhabitable. It would lead to the collapse of society and the loss of billions of lives and must be avoided at all costs.  
As proposed in the email to all members of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate committee on Monday 10th Feb.

Letter from Climate Activists calling for change

The email was sent from a group of 12 climate activists and said

Sheffield City Council Annual Climate Action Report 2023 – 2024

Dear Members of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee

We are writing to ask you not to accept the Annual Climate Action Report 2023 – 2024. It should be urgently rewritten and brought back to the next meeting. 

This is not to dispute that there is lots of good work going on in the Council to reduce emissions and that Officers and Councillors are working hard to get to Net Zero.

So what is wrong with the report?

Firstly there is no admission of failure. It is vital to be transparent about how we have been significantly overspending our carbon budget, and this deficit has been increasing each year. It must be clearly conveyed that this growing deficit means that getting to the 2030 goal will need dramatically deeper change than it did 6 years ago. A chart like this, made by Sam Wakeling from public data, could help illustrate the situation. Plans which have been created in previous years need to be replaced with emergency responses which pragmatically reflect our current reality. 

This does not mean that all is lost. But the Council should be committing to annual carbon budgets and reporting on this performance. Every tonne of CO2e saved delays the time when we can expect a Hothouse Earth scenario. 

If Social Services were missing their targets so significantly, it would be in the headlines in the papers and heads would be expected to roll. If Education were missing their targets and all the schools were Inadequate people would expect changes to leadership and an appropriate response to improve things. But with climate change, all the Core Cities and the Government are failing to secure our children a livable future and somehow that’s ok. We fully appreciate that the Council needs more resources from central Government to achieve this – which is why the annual report must be so explicit and must call for those resources.  Sheffield City Council should be shouting at the top of your voice to get them and persuading Sheffielders to support you in a campaign. The Council and SYMCA have to stop supporting climate-damaging policies like expanding roads and re-opening or extending airports and insist on investing that money instead in things like local transport, insulation and retrofit. 

Secondly, there is no clear statement about how urgent it now is to rapidly reduce emissions. This should be in the very first paragraph. As Trump, Musk, Reform and the Conservative Party are increasingly spreading anti-science disinformation it is vital that you help educate the public so that they understand and support policies that help move us towards Net Zero. If you believe we are in a Climate Emergency, this would not just be in this report, but all communications to the public such as the Annual Council Tax letter. 

A statement is needed at the beginning of the report explaining Hothouse Earth. “Hothouse Earth” refers to a potential climate scenario where human-caused greenhouse gas emissions trigger a series of self-reinforcing feedback loops in the Earth’s climate system, leading to a runaway heating effect where global temperatures rise significantly beyond pre-industrial levels, potentially causing massive sea level rise and rendering large parts of the planet uninhabitable. Even if emissions are reduced, this scenario is considered a tipping point beyond which human intervention will not be able to stop the heating process. 

Key points about Hothouse Earth:

• Temperature increase:
  A Hothouse Earth scenario could see global temperatures rise by at least 4-5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 
• Feedback loops:
  This warming would be driven by positive feedback mechanisms like melting permafrost releasing methane, large-scale forest dieback, and reduced ocean carbon absorption. 
• Sea level rise:
  Such a scenario would likely lead to significant sea level rise, potentially between 10 and 60 meters. 
• Uncontrollable warming:
  The key concern is that once these feedback loops are triggered, the warming could become self-perpetuating, making it difficult to stop even with drastic emission reductions. This would lead to societal collapse and the deaths of billions of people.

Scientists have long warned us that these tipping points could start to kick in when we breach the 1.5C threshold. The latest Copernicus EU report confirms that January 2025 was officially the warmest January on record globally, with temperatures 1.75°C above pre-industrial levels. 

This marks the 18th month out of the last 19 where global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Even the development of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific and their temporary cooling effect on global temperatures couldn’t slow this trend.

In Europe, the situation is alarming: January temperatures were 2.51°C above the 1991-2020 average, making it the second warmest January ever recorded. 

If you would like to know more about Hothouse Earth there is a video of Prof Bill McGuire speaking last year in Sheffield here.  

It is important to involve the people of Sheffield in the decision-making that is needed to get us to Net Zero as soon as possible. One way to do this would be to initiate a Citizens Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice to put fairness at the centre of decision-making. 

Please urgently reconsider this report and ensure it is rewritten for the next meeting.

Yours sincerely

Graham Wroe

Jenni Crisp

Sean Ashton

Sam Wakeling

Geoff Cox

Dr Karine Nohr

Steph Howlett

Ian North

Alison North

Elizabeth Price

Fergus Eakin

Ian Pearson

Transport Regeneration and Climate Committee Meeting

Here is the response I received at the meeting.

Instead of answering the questions I raised Cllr Miskell chose to criticise me for having the temerity to waste Council Officers’ time with such questions. Had I been allowed a response I would have explained that if only the Council consulted and made use of the Climate Community in Sheffield we would not be having to come to meetings to try and amend motions. There is much expertise within Sheffield and the Council really should be benefitting from it rather than discouraging us from participating in democracy. Important documents like the Climate Plan should be consulted on before they come to Council meetings to be voted on.

At the end of the meeting the Councillors debated the Climate Report and there were good contributions from all parties, but the consensus was not to amend the report to save the Officers time.

Alexi Dimond from the Green Party responded to the letter in writing saying

“Hi Graham, 

Thanks to you and the other signatories of the letter for raising this most vital issue with the committee.

As Green Party councillors we share your alarm at the lack of progress towards Net Zero, and the fact that we have already spent 54% of our carbon budget to 2100 (and its only 2025!).

We also regret the lack of prominence this is given in the report, and lack of acknowledgement of the likely dire consequences. 

I submitted the attached Members’ Questions and have now received responses.

I hope to ask further supplementary questions in the meeting and me and Ruth will both be interrogating the Climate Report.

Thanks to you and the campaigners for everything you do.

Best wishes, 

Alexi Dimond (he/him)

Green Party Councillor for Gleadless Valley

Deputy Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee

To summarise the answers to Cllr Dimond’s questions

1, The Council will not oppose the reopening of Doncaster Airport

2. Sheffield City Council is not providing any financial investment for the new airport but supports SYMA and Doncaster Council in working to reopen the airport.

3. Is worth reprinting in full.

Q. Given that Sheffield has already used 54% of its carbon budget up to 2100, should this committee look at more radical and urgent action to achieve a just transition to net zero – for example through a complete overhaul of parking policy, which is one of the biggest tools at the disposal of Local Authorities to address the climate emergency?

A. Finally, in response to your third and final point: In recognition of the need to accelerate climate action, the Council is committed to scaling up existing decarbonisation programmes set out in our current routemaps. This includes further investment in active travel, public transport, and electric vehicle infrastructure, as well as continuing to retrofit social housing and support homeowners in improving the energy efficiency of their homes. Later today, I am pleased to announce that we will be launching an ambitious programme to decarbonise our bus fleet, with an £11 million fund to electrify at least 30 buses. As you’ll also be aware from today’s agenda, we are taking important steps to improve public transport access in North Sheffield, helping people make the switch from private cars through the introduction of the Stocksbridge Hopper Buses.

My comment- of course, we all welcome investment in 30 Electric Buses, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to the massive fleet of roughly 450 buses. A climate emergency requires emergency action and Councillors should be banging on the door of 10 Downing Street demanding the funding they need to provide it.

You can see the video of the whole meeting here. https://sheffield.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/950507