While world leaders are meeting at the global climate conference COP26 in Glasgow, Yorkshire is putting the climate crisis at the top of the regional agenda with its own climate summit in Leeds next Wednesday (10 November). 

The Summit has been co-organised by The Yorkshire Post and the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission and features politicians, business leaders, academics and representatives from trades unions, the voluntary and community sector and youth activism. 

Yorkshire’s first-ever climate summit will be used to launch a Climate Action Plan for the region, produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission, an independent advisory group set up to help guide the region’s response to the climate and ecological emergency. 

The action plan has been developed with the input of hundreds of people over the past three months and represents the first formal advice the Commission has produced for local leaders to help the region rise to this critical challenge. 

Speaker line up

Confirmed speakers for the all-day Summit include (among others): Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire; Cllr Richard Cooper, Leader of Harrogate Borough Council; Piers Forster, Professor at the University of Leeds and an IPCC lead author; Andy Gouldson, Director of the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission; Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central and Mayor of South Yorkshire; Judith Cruickshank, Regional Managing Director for Business Banking at NatWest; Bill Adams, TUC Yorkshire and Humber; Mark Goldstone, West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce; Emma Bridge, Chief Executive of Community Energy England; Dr Jatinder Singh Mehmi, Co-chair of Sikh Alliance Yorkshire; Lee Thompson of Sustrans; Curtis Yip of the Regional Youth Climate Assembly, and Liz Barber, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Water and Chair of Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission. 

The event will be hosted by broadcaster and journalist Christine Talbot, formerly of ITV Calendar News. 

Attending the event

Tickets to attend the Yorkshire Climate Change Summit in person, at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, are available now through the event website: https://www.yorkshireclimatechange.co.uk/  

Key sessions from the Summit will also be livestreamed and available to watch for free via the event website. 

Sponsorship for the summit comes from Betterworld.Solutions, NatWest, Hermes, Bruntwood, E.ON, Synetiq, Cooper King Distillery and Marketing Adventures.

Free tickets

The Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission has a limited number of complementary tickets available for people for whom the cost of attending in person would otherwise be prohibitive. These are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To book one, please register via Eventbrite (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yorkshire-post-climate-change-summit-2021-tickets-165238439621) using the promo code YHCCFREE (click on ‘Enter promo code’ on the first ticket selection page, type in YHCCFREE and click ‘Apply’). You can then select one ticket from the Standard Conference Delegate option and checkout. The deadline for registering complementary tickets is Friday 5 November at 12 noon.

Please only book a complementary ticket if you are able to attend for the full day. If you book one and are subsequently unable to attend, please cancel your ticket so that someone else may book it. 

Notes to editors 

For press passes to attend the Summit at the Royal Armouries (which takes place from 9am-5pm on Wednesday 10 November) please email Helen Lambert helen.lambert@jpress.co.uk 

For interview requests, please email Kate Lock, Policy and Communications Manager for Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission, K.M.Lock@leeds.ac.uk   

To purchase tickets to attend the event in person, or to watch the livestream of the event, visit: https://www.yorkshireclimatechange.co.uk/

An embargoed press release will be sent on Tuesday 9 November about the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Action Plan, including a link to an advance copy. To be included on the circulation list, email K.M.Lock@leeds.ac.uk