Derbyshire pledges support to help generate more sustainability in the minerals industry

Leading figures from the quarrying and mineral products industry met with Derbyshire County Council Cabinet Members on Friday 14th October to discuss how they could work together to cut carbon emissions on the journey to net zero

As one of the country’s leading producers of minerals, Derbyshire has a long history of mineral production and key representatives from the county council joined key industry delegates for a round-table discussion about making the industry greener, hosted by the building materials firm CRH Tarmac at their Tunstead site, Buxton.

Topics for discussion included alternative fuels, road network capacity and constraints, carbon capture, storage, and utilisation, distribution logistics and education and skills.

Councillor Carolyn Renwick, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, said: “We very much welcomed this opportunity to talk to leading figures in the mineral products industry to discuss their plans and ambitions to become more sustainable, and we thank Viv Russell, President of The Institute of Quarrying, for making this event happen.

“While Derbyshire’s varied mineral resources bring significant benefits to both the local and national economy, we recognise that the extraction of minerals, processing and transport to market all generate carbon emissions which contribute to climate change.

“The county council is committed to helping Derbyshire to become a net zero county by 2050 or sooner to help halt the effects of climate change, and so this was a great first step towards finding out what we as a local authority can do to support the sector to become more sustainable locally, which we hope will also help to bring about change nationally.

“We acknowledge the steps the industry has taken so far and the ongoing investments it continues to make towards achieving net zero emissions and we look forward to working with the sector more closely in the future.”

The Derbyshire Mineral Products Industry is worth £2.1 billion to the local economy and is the largest producing county to a sector which is the largest manufacturing industry employing 100,000 in the UK.

Viv Russell, President of The Institute of Quarrying, added: ”Establishing collaborative initiatives such as this between the regional authorities and the industry are critical to ensure we can meet the challenges of decarbonisation. I hope this meeting is the first step in developing a pathway to delivering on our collective ambition.”

The county council is currently working with Derby City Council to produce the Derbyshire and Derby Minerals Local Plan to help to positively plan for delivering sustainable minerals development for the period up to 2038.

It will include a framework of strategic policies that will set out an overall strategy for the pattern and scale of mineral development to make provision for the supply of minerals.

The plan has a key role in mitigating and adapting to climate change, helping the move towards a low carbon economy and responding to the impacts of climate change.