Elections: Sheffield Labour promises to net zero test all council spending

The pledge was made in its manifesto which was launched on Saturday, March 25.

Labour councillor Minesh Parekh said: “The climate and ecological emergency will require both urgency and creativity of action from all levels of Government. In proposing a net zero test on public spending, we want to hardwire our emissions targets into every policy passed in Sheffield, to better our efforts to tackle the climate crisis.”

Several major organisations including the World Wildlife Fund, the committee on climate change and Trades Union Congress have called on governments to introduce net zero testing.

The council said it alone produces around seven per cent of the city’s emissions and of that, 90 per cent comes from its 38,000 homes (16 percent of the total houses in Sheffield).

In 2019, Sheffield Council declared a climate emergency and pledged the city will be zero carbon by 2030.

But South Yorkshire Climate Alliance said in the four years since, it had not seen anything like sufficient action.

The council has been in no overall control for two years after Labour suffered major losses in recent elections. This, and the change to a committee system last year, means power is shared between parties.

Parties across the political spectrum including the Green Party and Liberal Democrats are launching their election manifestos ahead of the local elections on May 4.

The local democracy reporting service will be covering all.