The Green Transition Extra: Oliver Coppard on South Yorkshire's Citizens' Assembly for net zero
Weekly analysis of the shift towards a new economy.
Dear Reader,
Alona Ferber here, senior editor of New Statesman Spotlight, filling in for the Green Transition’s Jonny Ball. We’re bringing you an extra edition of this newsletter to kick off the last week of Cop28, with an exclusive piece by South Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor Oliver Coppard, reflecting on the recent climate-focused citizens’ assembly held in a region that’s home to some of the UK’s most climate-sceptic communities.
Read on to find out more about this kind of innovative approach to the green transition, working under the “stubborn shadow” of South Yorkshire’s post-industrial legacy. Jonny will be back in your inboxes on Friday.
Alona
Why I convened a citizens’ assembly for net zero
The wealth of South Yorkshire was once built on the coal dug out from under our feet. So-called black diamonds didn’t just power and connect our communities. Like so many other centres of industry across the north, they provided us with an economic and social foundation.
And yet in the 1980s those foundations were ripped apart by the violent transition away from coal and heavy industries, and a full-frontal attack on the social and economic model that sustained our communities.
I have been Mayor of South Yorkshire for just over 18 months, and in that time I have made it my priority to rebuild South Yorkshire’s economy; to restore the pride, purpose and prosperity of the place I call home.
But as we set about building a new future on the burial grounds of our industrial heritage — creating some of the world’s most advanced manufacturing facilities on the site of the Battle of Orgreave — the violence of that social and industrial transition continues to cast a long and stubborn shadow.
Across much of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield, there remains an invidious muscle memory of paycheques and pastimes stolen away by a government that often felt more intent on punishment than progress; a government 200 miles away in London who were seemingly prepared to sacrifice northern communities in the name of a new future. The violence of that transition has left a complex legacy of industrial and economic decline, of health and educational inequalities, and a latent – if understandable – scepticism about the promise of change.
That scepticism perhaps explains both the support we saw for Brexit in 2016 – the demand for a past now lost – and an outsized reluctance to support measures combating climate change. Research by the polling company FocalData for UnHerd found that half of the UK’s most climate sceptic communities are in my region.
As Mayor, it is not just my job to understand that legacy but to overcome it. If we do not confront it then we will never find legitimacy or support for the change that the current moment demands.
The problems we face, not just in South Yorkshire but across our country, are undeniable: a stagnant, unbalanced, underproductive economy; infrastructure broken by more than a decade of underinvestment; and a cost-of-living and climate crisis. These are all underpinned by a growing sense that politics and politicians have lost the capacity to come up with ideas that are big enough, or bold enough, to truly make change happen. That’s why I am committed to using the developing mechanisms of devolution to offer a new political approach, one that restores faith in the political process, and trust that progress is possible.
One example of that new approach is our South Yorkshire Citizens’ Assembly; the largest regional assembly in the UK, designed to help us understand how we get to net zero.
Some 30,000 people, randomly selected, were invited to join our Citizens’ Assembly. From those that responded, 100 were chosen. Those 100 were in essence a mini-South Yorkshire; representative of the whole region in terms of age, race, gender, ethnicity, occupations and – crucially – their views on climate change. Together, starting on 28 October, they were asked to consider how we might respond to climate change and how we might create a thriving, sustainable future for everyone who lives here.
The Assembly is unlike any room I’ve ever been in. It is genuinely representative of the rich complexity of South Yorkshire. Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve seen the Assembly overcome their fears and their differences, offering space for shared, practical and – at times – radical demands for change to emerge.
Yesterday was a great moment to witness democracy in action, with participants identifying the priorities which will inform the basis of our climate policy. The specific findings of the Assembly will be published in the new year, with themes including investment in skills, integrated transport, and sustainable economic growth. I can already say with confidence, however, that the process itself has offered us a new way of doing politics, a tool for renewing the connection between people and policy, and challenging the malign legacy of our industrial decline.
We live in a time of huge political challenges. Sometimes they can feel insurmountable. South Yorkshire’s Citizens’ Assembly has proven to me that the confidence, energy and legitimacy we need to overcome our fears and frustrations can be found in doing politics with people — not to people. Crucially, we must give our communities the chance to help political leaders navigate a path through challenges old and new.
Oliver Coppard is the Mayor of South Yorkshire Combined Authority
See you next week.
***For more on how our advertising services can support your organisation, please visit our page on Spotlight Marketing Solutions or contact us at client.solutions@newstatesman.co.uk***
The Green Transition is produced by Spotlight, the New Statesman's online policy section and print supplement. Spotlight reports on policy for the people who shape it and the business leaders it affects. Explore our in-depth reporting and analysis here.
Thank you for reading.
Please send any news or comments to: jonathan.ball@newstatesman.co.uk
Magic perceptions & insights - but really only bloody common sense if you think about it. The inspiration is in the process of real engagement with the offer of real resources - to which people can respond so positively!