Forget Net Zero – ambitious plans are afoot to make our part of the world carbon negative.
York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership is set to launch an “extremely ambitious” strategy to make the area England’s first carbon negative region.
The partnership – which is responsible for economic development in the area – is seeking endorsement on its Routemap to Carbon Negative from a range of partners, such as City of York and North Yorkshire councils and the national park authorities.
The plan set targets that would require residents to make sweeping changes to the way they live, and how businesses are operated.
It would see some 370sq km of new woodland, 20 per cent more hedgerows and 50sq km more bioenergy crops being produced by 2038.
The proposed routemap also features a target of installing an additional 2,500 megawatt of capacity from solar, onshore wind and hydropower by 2038.
This may prove controversial as some people have objected to existing schemes to build solar farms on rural plots of North Yorkshire.
Other targets include:
- cutting food waste by 30%
- cutting car usage by 48% by in the next eight years
- increasing bus passenger journeys by 49%
- increasing the distance people walk by 40%
- and cycling by 900%.
Under the plan some 250,000 homes will have carbon cutting materials retrofitted, as will more than 62 per cent of business premises, and up to 270,000 heat pumps will be deployed by 2038.
An officer’s report to a meeting of the North York Moors National Park Authority on September 26 states the routemap recognises that York and North Yorkshire “have the potential to sit at the heart of the UK’s decarbonisation plans and create significant economic opportunities”.
The report states the routemap can help build on the region’s existing industry strengths, alongside its outstanding natural capital assets – like the national parks – which can sequester carbon.
‘Extremely ambitious’
North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member with responsibility for climate change, Councillor Greg White, described the routemap as “extremely ambitious”, saying it would only be achieved if central government, industry and individuals do everything they can to reduce carbon emissions.
He said: “In order to address climate change it will need us to fundamentally change the way we live our lives. It’s something people are starting to get an idea of but are not fully on board yet.
“A lot of the targets are a big stretch and will be very hard to achieve, but they have been set at that level because that’s what is needed. The temptation is to say it’s all very difficult and we shouldn’t do anything, but what we need to do is the things that make the most impact.
“I personally believe some things will need to be done at the end of the process and some things now, such as insulating more houses. At the same time we need to be working on everything else so it is ready to scale up.
“For example, I’m not convinced that we can make that move to massively reduce the number of cars and increase public transport use with the technology we have currently got.”
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