TEESSIDE is the biggest polluter in the UK, a report confirmed this week. But industry chiefs say being top of the emissions league isn't all bad news.

Jan 22 2010 by Kelley Price, Evening Gazette

This week’s Cities Outlook 2010 report named Middlesbrough as the highest polluting ‘city’, although John Barton, projects director at Wilton-based renewables promoter Renew, said that wasn’t surprising, given the industrial concentration in the Tees Valley.

And, he said, although companies faced their own challenges, pressure to cut the country’s emissions presented Tees Valley with “some fantastic opportunities”.

“Over the years, we’ve lost our dominant position in the chemical sector. But with the new environmental agenda we’ve an opportunity to become strong again.

“One of the main areas of emerging technology is around waste and getting value from it. We need to stop thinking of it as waste and more as a resource by changing our processing mentality - and the Tees Valley is the perfect place to do this.”

Science City Professor of Energy and chair of North East Biofuels, Dermot Roddy, said the fact that Teesside had a strong industrial base meant it could attract sectors like biofuels, which could be part of the solution to global warming.

“They need the same things that any chemical plant needs - the sites, the infrastructure. If we can find low-carbon ways of cementing or rolling steel or making aluminium, we have solved the problem within our own manufacturing processes.”

TOP 5 DIRTIEST CITIES

Middlesbrough (Teesside) - 29.4

Newport - 14.0

Grimsby - 12.5

Birkenhead - 10.4

Warrington - 10.3

emissions per capita in cities (carbon tonnes). Source: Department of Energy and Climate Change 2007