Andy Street is the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands.
BIRMINGHAM — A year ago in Glasgow, we showed off a zero-emissions train made in the West Midlands to drive home the role cities and regions must play in tackling the climate emergency. It’s fair to say that keeping the clean growth express on track hasn’t been straightforward since, as we’ve hurtled through two Conservative leadership contests and on to our third prime minister.
Now, as the COP27 climate talks get underway, we have in Rishi Sunak someone who has both the commitment to net zero by 2050 and the ability to harness markets and innovation to drive us toward that destination.
Far more important than prior questions about whether Sunak would attend the summit are the substantive decisions he will take — including on how to enable local leaders like me to help protect the planet along with jobs and public services.
Sunak need look no further than the West Midlands to see how promoting economic growth and protecting the environment can work in tandem. We cut emissions by a fifth in the seven years after 2010 at a time when our local economy grew by 35 percent. Already almost 100,000 workers are employed in more than 5,000 firms in the region’s low-carbon sector generating £12 billion in revenue per annum.
We’re leading the way when it comes to brownfield regeneration through our “brownfield first” policy. By building affordable eco-friendly homes on long derelict sites — unlocked and made commercially viable thanks to the cash we’ve put on the table — we’re protecting our precious greenbelt for future generations to enjoy. What’s more, we know that relatively densely-populated cities where facilities are well shared are much more energy efficient.
Transport, of course, is going to be critical for cleaner and greener growth. Trains, trams, cars and buses — the West Midlands is leading the way on them all. We’re also advancing active travel alongside our Cycling and Walking Commissioner Adam Tranter, exemplified by our popular region-wide cycle hire scheme. We’re accelerating the provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, working with various stakeholders to advance our giga-factory plans, which will build the next generation of batteries, and collaborating with the likes of Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, whose multi-billion pound investments will drive down the cost of net-zero vehicles. It’s encouraging to see the U.K. government providing another £211 million of funding for battery research, which will help the sector deliver 100,000 jobs directly and indirectly via the wider battery supply chain by 2040.
As well as shifting travel habits toward public transport, we’re making sure our existing, familiar forms are cleaner. We will deploy an electric bus fleet, making Coventry the first “all-electric city” and the largest hydrogen bus fleet in Western Europe in Birmingham and the Black Country. In these tough times — with cost-of-living challenges buffeting our economy — taking up alternative transport options makes financial as well as environmental sense.
The PM has said that his government will be committed to cutting household living costs by rolling out home insulation and we know from our own experience in the West Midlands that this is the right move. Our pioneering retrofit schemes are driving down energy consumption while ensuring our residents are helped to keep warm and safe and local businesses are better placed to thrive. We’re currently running two government-funded retrofit projects targeting nearly 1,000 low-income households over this winter. The Green Alliance think tank estimates that the government needs to be spending an extra £2.9 billion a year to get retrofitting of housing on track, which gives us a sense of the scale of action required to really move the needle.
Indeed, whether it’s brownfield, transport or retrofit, it’s essential for the central government to back us to deliver with more powers and funding. Local leaders globally — be it mayors, chief ministers or governors — will play a huge collective role in tackling the climate emergency, so given there’s so much they can do to lead change, we must make it easier for them to play their part. Some would argue that we’re best placed, given our direct-elected mandate, proximity to the on-the-ground reality and frankly stability, if the recent churn in Cabinet ministers is any indication.
Delivering clean growth is a social, economic and indeed electoral imperative for myself as mayor here in the West Midlands. This is also true for Sunak if he wants to stay true to the promises he has made to the British public and go on to win the next general election. In the cause of a planet-saving, job-generating green growth agenda, he has my wholehearted support.
