The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has adopted an ambitious new ‘Carbon Reduction Plan’, six months after declaring a climate emergency.
It requires the Authority to practically eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from its operations over the course of the decade.
The plan had been due to come before Members at a full Authority meeting on 31 March, but with all committee meetings cancelled in response to the Coronavirus epidemic, the Authority’s Chief Executive David Butterworth has used ‘Urgency/Emergency’ powers delegated to him from the Authority to formally adopt it.
The plan contains a new objective which commits the Authority to reducing its emissions by 95% by 2030, compared with a 2005 baseline. By March last year, the Authority had reduced its emissions by 62%, compared with 2005.
Over the next five years the Authority will install further renewable or low energy technologies across its estate, which consists of four office buildings, four National Park Centres (including the Dales Countryside Museum), four workshops and 10 public toilet blocks.
All the Authority’s leased vehicles will be switched to plug-in electric, while carbon dioxide emissions from journeys made by car by officers, Members and volunteers will be reduced by at least 10% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030.
The Authority will also maintain a £30,000 a year budget to directly fund new woodlands. This means that by 2030, the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered annually from woodlands funded by the National Park Authority will be at least 30 times the amount it emits.
The Chairman of the National Park Authority, Carl Lis, said: “The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has been moving to a low carbon existence for some time, but having declared a ‘climate emergency’ last September, we must show what we can do in deeds not words. It is called an emergency for a reason.
“The Carbon Reduction Plan will take the Authority way beyond ‘net zero’. It will not be straightforward but we don’t undertake these actions because they are easy. We do them because they are hard. We expect to be judged, by future generations, on our actions not our words, and we expect others to be judged in the same way.
“The Authority and its partners have already set out ambitions, in the National Park Management Plan 2019-24, for making the wider National Park more resilient and responsive to the impacts of a changing climate. We look forward to working with others to achieve the objectives in that plan. What we are doing with our Carbon Reduction Plan is demonstrating how we are going to get our own house in order.”
How will you be reporting your progress to the public? Where will I be able to find your report on this website? Thanks
Thank you for the questions. Each year for the next five years, key components of the Carbon Reduction Plan will be translated into specific actions that will be included in the Authority’s annual Action Plan. Progress towards achieving the carbon reduction objective will be reported annually to the Authority (it meets 4 times a year – meeting papers are published on the website) and in more detail to the Audit & Review committee (meeting papers are published the website).
Net carbon emissions, please! This is an issue which requires precise terminology.
I note that YDNPA has an annual income of approx £600k from its toilets and carparks. Just wondered what you have included in the Carbon Reduction Plan to reduce or offset the carbon emissions of these visitors and their cars using these YDNPA facilities?
Clearly there is a wider issue regarding how visitors travel to the National Park as a whole – where the figure for those coming by car is around 85% – and how we encourage visitors to make the switch to public transport, where services are available, cycling or walking – to help meet the zero carbon target by 2050.