CAfS chief executive, Hazel Graham, addressed the board of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership on Friday 27 September, explaining the urgency of the climate crisis. Hazel was speaking along with Colin Cox, director of public health, about the scale of the transformation required for a transition to a zero carbon Cumbria and the huge wealth of benefits this would bring.

LEP board members were extremely positive and it was proposed to include the climate crisis as a standard agenda item. Board members emphasized the potential benefits for businesses and communities of decarbonising and acknowledged the huge opportunity it offers.

Cumbria LEP will be represented at the county-wide climate change sub group and will feed their views into a funding bid being led by CAfS for a Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership, to enable a programme of work to cut emissions in the county.