Scarborough councillors endorse plan for carbon-negative North Yorkshire

A route map towards achieving a carbon-negative York and North Yorkshire has been approved by Scarborough Council’s cabinet.

The plan sets out a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2034 and carbon negativity by 2040 across the region.

One of the first authorities in England to do so, Scarborough Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and has set an ambition to make the borough carbon neutral by 2030.

A report prepared for the cabinet states that while climate change is accepted as a major threat, it is also seen as a “significant opportunity for economic growth”.

The route map was drafted in consultation with more than 40 organisations including national park authorities, private sector partners, business networks, academia, and community groups.

The report adds that Scarborough Council has already spent £1.69m of funding to improve the energy efficiency of more than 560 properties, used £260,000 of funding to deliver 48 electric vehicle charge points across the borough, planted more than 9,500 trees in the past five years, and provided “training and career opportunities for those wishing to work in the offshore renewables sector”.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, December 13, Harry Baross, the authority’s climate change programme manager said: “These actions span the range of teams and services at the council, showing how thoroughly climate change activity has been embedded into our organisation.”

He added: “On operational emissions, we are expected to drastically reduce our carbon emissions as a council this year, as a result largely of the hydrotreated vegetable oil trial in many of our diesel vehicles.

“This biofuel has around 90 per cent lower emissions than diesel and could be responsible for reducing our emissions by around 800 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.”