RAMPING up efforts to tackle climate change and meet emission targets will be "painful" but necessary, an MP has warned.

Commenting on the removal of tax relief for red diesel, Darlington's Conservative MP Peter Gibson said: “It was important that there was relief for the agriculture industry but it will be painful. We’re in those transition years and the money being spent needs to be made elsewhere."

Asking a room of business people who has an electric car, just one person's raised their hand.

The government is expected to enhance electric car incentives and provisions.

But electric vehicles cannot alone revolutionise travel. Hydrogen, a more powerful alternative, is expected to power trains and freight vehicles.

The UK’s first hydrogen trains are set to operate between Saltburn and Bishop Auckland, routed via Middlesbrough and Darlington.

"Hydrogen is all starting in the Tees Valley," Mayor Ben Houchen said.