Agenda item

To receive a presentation on the emerging NYC Climate Change Strategy.

Members received a detailed presentation from the Climate Change Policy Officer from North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) on the work which was being carried out in conjunction with the seven district councils and the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to develop a Climate Change Strategy for the new unitary North Yorkshire Council.

The Committee heard that the LEP document, Routemap to Carbon Negative, which was the most recent and relevant document had been used as a guiding document for York and North Yorkshire, and it was hoped that the Routemap to Carbon Negative would be endorsed by the Executive Members of NYCC in January 2023, along with the draft Climate Change Strategy.

The aim was that the region of York and North Yorkshire would be carbon negative by 2040 by encouraging residents, businesses, and visitors to take climate responsible actions; this was felt to be an ambitious, but achievable ambition.

The Committee were shown data for greenhouse gas emissions for the North Yorkshire area, and it was explained that the government had recently started to include not only carbon dioxide as the key greenhouse gas but also nitrous oxide and methane, consequently the figures had changed quite considerably; this demonstrated that agriculture was the largest omitting sector followed by transport and domestic buildings.

The Officer stated that in July 2022 NYCC had declared a climate emergency, which was included in the NYCC Council Plan, and in the Plan for the new unitary Council, and highlighted some of the measures that had been put in place across the services provided by NYCC to reduce omissions.

The Members were appraised of the current activity taking place due to Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in terms of the Climate Change Working Group and the different workstreams, with the aspiration of embedding climate change thinking into all proposals, decisions and policies. 

The Committee were informed that once the draft NYC Climate Change Strategy had been endorsed by the NYCC Executive, the next step would be for the draft to go out for public consultation, this would take place between January and March 2023. 

It was highlighted that consideration had to be given to three themes to support the region to be carbon negative, these were to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for the climate changing; and support nature and the ecosystem to thrive.  The Members went on to hear a number of interventions being put in place by NYCC to mitigate greenhouse gases, to adapt to the changes in the climate, and to support nature; and how these would be delivered.      

Finally, the Committee noted that talks had taken place between officers from North Yorkshire County Council and the Selby Sustainability Partnership to ensure that any issues relevant to the Selby District were being taken into consideration.

Members asked a number of questions in relation to the emissions data provided, low carbon vehicles, the connection of solar farms to the National Grid, carbon capture by trees and tree planting, and the methane produced by agriculture.

The Committee raised concerns regarding the timescales to achieve carbon neutrality and carbon negativity and asked how confident the officers were that the targets would be reached.  It was confirmed that the timescales were in the Routemap to Carbon Negative and had been part of the modelling analysis but were challenging.  However, it was stated that they were targets and ambitions which NYC would strive to achieve in partnership with the public, private and community sectors across York and North Yorkshire.