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NEECCo – North East England Climate Coalition

The creation of the North East England Climate Coalition is our region’s initial contribution, on behalf of future generations, to the urgent, radical and at scale response demanded by the climate emergency.

With the emergence of Net Zero North East England and Net Zero Tees Valley, NEECCo has revised it’s purpose and activities for the next 12 months, from May 2023.

Find out more here.

We are a cross-sector initiative bringing the region together to tackle climate emergency, reverse ecological collapse and deliver an urgent and just transition.

By catalysing climate and environmental initiatives that can only be accomplished regionally and beyond individual sectors we aim to ignite a passion in everyone to build a brighter and sustainable future. We aim to empower the region with the tools and resources needed to deliver real change making the North East England’s Greenest Region and a global leader in climate action.

Our Mission

To tackle the climate emergency, reverse ecological collapse and deliver an urgent and just transition. Working together we will confront the climate emergency by catalysing and accelerating action across sectors, organisations and individuals. We will build upon the assets and the means we have within the region to achieve net zero emissions and seek further investment to deliver regional initiatives to drive real change.

Our Aims Are

  • Convey an overall vision of our Region in the future that everyone – people, communities and organisations in all our diversity – can identify with. A vision encapsulated in the phrase ‘Becoming England’s greenest region’
  • Adopt clear and necessarily ambitious targets that can be monitored and evaluated. ‘We commit to meet them and we intend to beat them’
  • Deliver climate and environmental initiatives that can only be accomplished regionally and beyond individual sectors
  • Give clear added value to our partners regionally and locally, across all of society – the private, public and voluntary sectors. Working with our partners we aim to attract resources and achieve national and international profile that could only be achieved (at scale) by a region-wide initiative such as our coalitions

Joy by Beau Walker https://soundcloud.com/beauwalkermusic

Our Story and Our History

Since the summer of 2019 Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE) has been working behind the scenes with representation of the public, private and VCSE sectors with the intention of creating a North East England Climate Coalition (NEECCo). The coalition, with a vision of ‘Becoming England’s Greatest Region’, would aim to address the climate crisis, ecological collapse and ensure a just transition to a green economy.

The North East region has a proud history of invention and innovation and took a leading role in developing the technologies and engineering advancements that catalysed the industrial revolution. That spirit of advancement is still strong today, with local businesses and our universities leading the way on pioneering technologies and research that will place us at the global forefront of the green revolution. We want to position the North East as the leading region in accelerating the transition to a low and then no-carbon economy and attract Government support and sustainable investment to realise our ambitions.

Since our inception in March 2020 we have secured 21 Strategic Partners who are regional or sub-regional organisations from across sectors to develop and drive forward the work of the Coalition. We have been working at pace to establish several working groups involving over 50 partners. Since our public launch in March 2021, we have gained over 200 supporters from organisations and 100 individual pledges, with an ever-growing public engagement through all channels of communication.

We are a diverse and innovative region with the skills and commitment to deliver real change through a just transition. We truly believe that in working together we can achieve our ambition to become England’s Greenest Region.

The climate emergency we all face has been brought into sharper focus by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has abruptly reminded us all that we live in a highly interconnected and interdependent world where collective action is the only solution to a global threat.

While the threat to life on earth posed by climate change is profound, this is also a unique moment of opportunity, post pandemic, to create a better, greener, fairer world for all people – a world transformed.

Read more about the unique history which has influenced the establishment of NEECCo – Climate Change and North East England: From Cause to Effect