Fears of 'massive gap' in Newcastle net zero pledge at halfway mark to 2030 target

The city is now at the halfway point between its leaders declaring a climate emergency on April 3, 2019 and the end of 2030, the date by which it wants to reach net zero emissions.

Since announcing the eco-friendly aim, Newcastle City Council has produced plans aimed at recycling 20% more waste, cutting energy consumption in homes and other buildings by a third, and transitioning 41% of all privately-owned vehicles in Newcastle to electric models – though experts have warned that the city will require a huge injection of Government funding in order to reach its decarbonisation goals.

Activists have been left disappointed by the speed of progress and say that more dramatic steps are needed if the net zero ambition is to become a reality, with the Labour-run council accused of “dodging the big decisions”.

City-wide carbon dioxide emissions fell by 10.31% between 2019 and 2022, according to the latest available figures provided by the local authority on Friday.

But walking and cycling groups SPACE for Gosforth, SPACE for Heaton and Newcycling complained that only two of an original 27 “priority actions” to cut transport-related pollution had been completed since 2019, the launch of the Clean Air Zone and an e-scooter trial scheme, and that efforts to cut car usage through schemes like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods appear to have stalled since projects in Jesmond, Heaton, and Fenham were dropped.

The three groups told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “From 2021 to 2022 transport emissions in Newcastle increased by 3.8%. Meanwhile, action is only becoming more urgent as more records are broken, including 2024 being confirmed as the world’s hottest year on record.

“The council’s 2030 Action Plan promised a progress report at the start of each year to confirm whether the plan remains ‘relevant, appropriate and targeted in scale and structure for achieving Net Zero by 2030’. As it stands there is a massive gap between what has been promised and what is being delivered.”

Alistair Ford, chair of Newcastle branch of the North East Public Transport Users Group, called for the council to take actions such as imposing emissions-based parking prices and reallocating road space from cars to sustainable forms of travel.

Next Thursday, February 20, the council is due to hold its second climate change forum at the Civic Centre, with a specific focus on biodiversity and nature. 

Labour councillor Juna Sathian, the council’s cabinet member for climate and transport, said the authority realised there was more work to be done but that “no single city, let alone organisation, could solve the climate emergency alone”.

However, she insisted that the council had taken “vast and commendable” measures so far and pointed out that Newcastle’s net zero plans had been named as among the best in the world by international climate research provider CDP.

She added: “We are, and will continue to, working with the city and wider region to modernise infrastructure to be more sustainable, efficient and accessible; reduce the amount of waste produced and introduced food and flexi-plastic waste trials; updated heat networks and expanded existing systems; supported the planting of more than 300,000 trees through the North East Community Forest in 2024 alone; exploring electric vehicle infrastructure and improving availability of active travel options; adapting public realm to make us more resilient to flooding events; investing in public and community buildings to reduce their emissions; installed renewable energy sources; and so much more.

“We will continue to lobby for further investment and support, and influence national policy alongside our North East Combined Authority partners, to allow us to continue to make further progress in protecting our environment.”

Green Party councillor Nick Hartley accused the council of “still dodging the big decisions” almost six years on from its climate declaration and urged it to publish detailed data on the city’s emissions.

He added: “People don’t need more slogans; they need lower bills, better transport, and a waste system that actually works. Home heating is responsible for 20% of carbon emissions, yet developers are still allowed to build poorly insulated homes with no solar panels, in areas that force more car dependency.

“That means higher energy bills for residents and higher emissions for the city. The council is literally building future problems. If the council was serious, they’d be pushing for higher building standards and backing effective insulation and renewable energy schemes to cut costs and carbon at the same time.”

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The council has also come under fire repeatedly for signing up to a scheme that will see huge amounts of Newcastle’s waste sent to a massive incinerator in Redcar, during a time when recycling rates in the city fell to their lowest for 15 years in 2022/23.

Liberal Democrat councillor Gareth Kane said the authority had suffered “paralysis by analysis” since 2019 and had only produced a “handful of pilot projects actually changing anything”, other than the Government-funded Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme that has seen millions of pounds spent on solar panels, heat pumps and energy efficiency improvements at schools, libraries, leisure centres, and other public buildings.

Coun Kane added: “Net Zero by 2030 was always going to be a stretch, but it was proposed by the Lib Dems in 2019 to try to shake the Labour-run Council out of its complacency on carbon emissions. Unfortunately, after initially making all the right noises, the Council has failed miserably to deliver against this ambition.”