In February 2025, we put to Sheffield City Council UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ stark comment: “Blazing temperatures in 2024 require trail-blazing climate action in 2025”, exposing the Council’s lack of proportionate action since they declared a Climate Emergency in 2019.
Our question received a response that Sheffield had used more than half of the city’s carbon budget since it was set – leaving the same amount to last the next 75 years.
In the light of this we asked a follow-up question, to query the Council’s support for high-carbon companies like Boeing, Rolls Royce and McLaren, which can never become zero-carbon. We think it would be better to address insulation of homes and local food production which would create jobs while reducing climate-changing emissions. The Council’s response was “we make no apology for that” – so our campaigns continue to bring this to public attention.
We asked the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee to tell us what action was being taken to address the Climate Emergency – they provided a long list, but we could see it was not commensurate with the crisis. We work with expert campaigners to get the data for the emissions reductions needed and actually achieved.
So, in 2026, we asked the TRC Committee if they thought the Council was doing enough – their answer was “NO”. We will keep pursuing this – we have already met the new Committee following the 2026 Council elections.
