Lord Deben, former chair of the Climate Change Committee, opened a conference on sustainability and climate change in Stevenage on Tuesday with a rousing presentation centring Honesty, Urgency and Delivery.

His keynote address to over 140 residents, businesses, charities, and environmental groups from across Hertfordshire invigorated the audience for a day of workshops and panel discussions which was featured on Channel 4 News. The event will help the county’s councils progress coordinated sustainability action through the Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP).

Hertfordshire LEP's Clean Growth Manager Helen Pollock, said: "With over £100m secured locally to make homes greener and more energy efficient over the next two years, we have set out at this event our work to build the capacity and capability of the county's retrofit supply chain - essential to ensuring local people and businesses can benefit from this high potential opportunity."

Cllr. Adrian England of Dacorum Borough Council, Chair of HCCSP, said: “With more and more evidence of a Climate Emergency, today has been one big A&E - an opportunity to combine a rich mix of Attendees and Experts. We’ve been purposefully listening to each other, doing the patient diagnostics to develop therapies for Hertfordshire, from water and biodiversity to buildings and transport, to achieve local net zero in a recovering biodiverse environment.”

HCCSP is a strategic group of all 10 district councils, the county council and the Local Enterprise Partnership in Hertfordshire.