It was a huge honour to be named "Britain’s Greenest MP" last night at The Climate Coalition’s Green Heart Hero Awards. The Green Heart Hero Awards recognise the work of individuals, community groups and businesses to tackle climate change and promote a cleaner future.
There are lots of Green Heart Heroes out there, and this recognition is very much something I want to share with everyone I have worked with on environmental issues over the last year.
This includes all the great groups in our constituency who do incredible work to protect our environment, including Saltburn Beachwatch, Ocean Revival 2020, Keeping It Clean At Saltburn and Surfers Against Sewage, who have worked with me on tackling plastic pollution, as well as the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust who do fantastic work to restore and protect habitats for local wildlife, and everyone who has got involved in local litter picks.
At national level I am coordinating the cross-party push to ask the Government to legislate for the UK to deliver “Net Zero” carbon emissions (i.e. carbon neutrality) by 2050. This has led to the Government has commissioning formal advice from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which will be published in May. If the CCC agrees, legislation will likely be tabled later this year.
On Teesside, last September it was amazing to see PD Ports (Teesport)become the first port in the UK, and just the second port in the world, to commit to ‘Operation Clean Sweep’, the plastics industry’s code of best practice to prevent plastic pellets escaping during transport and manufacture.
There are other fantastic green projects in the pipeline like the recently-announced Clean Gas Project at the former steelworks site, which will pilot pioneering Carbon Capture and Storage technology.
So there's lots to celebrate! This is a lovely award and I promise I'll keep pushing for more good news.
