The North of Tyne Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change saw 50 citizens in the region come together to discuss how the region can combat climate change. The Assembly, facilitated by non-profit Shared Future CIC, started on 24 February and ended on 24 March 2021. It ran for a total of thirty hours over eight sessions, at which the Assembly members shared ideas, deliberated on the issues, and then came up with a set of thirty recommendations.
Responding to Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations
On July 27 2021 Mayor Jamie Driscoll presented the Citizens’ Assembly’s report and a separate report that included initial proposals for NTCA to develop climate emergency projects aligned to the Assembly recommendations to Cabinet.
On September 22 2021 Cabinet received a report outline how NTCA would respond to the Assembly.
Building upon this, a report outlining NTCA’s response to Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations on energy, skills and housing was presented to Cabinet on January 25 2022. Cabinet approved an allocation of up to £1million to support the initiatives described in the paper, comprising £0.8m for the BEST (Business Energy Saving Team) project, providing advice and support for businesses to help them reduce their carbon emissions and £0.2m for the development of a business case for a major housing retrofit programme.
Northumbria University undertook an evaluation of the North of Tyne Citizens’ Assembly, you can read their report here.
Further details about what we are doing to tackle the climate emergency are in Zero carbon, Zero poverty: Our 5-point plan.