The government has praised the creation of a growing cross-sector initiative aiming to make the North East England’s greenest region.
In a major report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE), the support organisation for the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector in the region, has been heralded for creating the North East England Climate Coalition (NEECCo) in response to the climate crisis.
The 102-page report, Net Zero in the North East, sets out the case for green investment in the region and argues that 27,000 new green jobs could be created by a move towards net zero.
Discussing the importance of more coordinated action between the public, private and VCSE sectors, it states: “…stakeholders highlighted organisations such as VONNE and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) are already engaging stakeholders across academia, industry, public and civil society in order to build better coordination between organisations in the region.
“The former in particular was praised for creating NEECCo as a regional response to the climate crisis, with the aim of addressing this issue and ensuring a fair transition for the region by bringing together representatives from the public, private and VCSE sectors.”
NEECCo was formed in 2019 to bring the region together to tackle the climate emergency, reverse ecological collapse and support the delivery of an urgent and just transition to a green economy.
The report, which was written to develop and test an experimental approach for assessing the potential impacts of this transition in a way that can be replicated and compared across the country, is a positive step towards our mission towards becoming England’s greenest region.
Sir Paul Ennals, Chair of NEECCo, said: “We all have our part to play in reducing our carbon footprint, as individuals, small organisations, businesses or public sector agencies, but there are also things that can be done better at a regional level and that’s where NEECCo comes in.
“We can make sure the best ideas are taken up across the North East, we can scale up small projects into larger regional projects and attract new investment into the region. We’re all the more confident following this report that we can bring all sectors together in a common mission to make the North East England’s greenest region.”
Download the full report at gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-in-the-north-east-of-england-regional-transition-impacts, and to find out more about NEECCo, visit neecco.org.uk.