Going electric to cut emissions

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has given an update on the progress it has made so far in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations.

The Authority’s Carbon Reduction Plan, agreed in 2020, committed it to reducing its emissions by 95% by 2030, compared with a 2005 baseline.

A paper debated at this morning’s Audit and Review Committee meeting (see agenda item 6) shows the Authority has so far reduced emissions by 74%, compared with 2005.

Three of the Authority’s four National Park Visitor Centres – at Grassington, Aysgarth Falls and Malham – are now heated using air source pumps.    This is on top of previous work to install biomass boilers at the Colvend office and at the Dales Countryside Museum, as well as ground source heat pumps at the Yoredale office in Bainbridge.

Before the end of this year, a large proportion of the Authority’s leased vehicle fleet will be switched to electric vehicles. Charging points have been installed at the main offices and ranger bases in Hawes, Grassington, Stonedykes near Langcliffe, Orton, Malham, Aysgarth Falls and Bainbridge.

Member Champion for Corporate Management Julie Hutton said: “I am really pleased at the way we have continued to find ways to run our buildings and vehicles in a more environmentally friendly way, and save money on our running costs.

“The National Park Authority declared a climate emergency five years ago – but we’ve been working to reduce our emissions since 2005.  Our carbon reduction plan is the latest in a series of initiatives that has seen us reduce our operational emissions to almost a quarter of what they were in 2005 – even though our organisation is bigger than it was then.   Our ambition is still to try to practically eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from our operations but we know that it is getting more difficult now.”

She added: “Reducing our own emissions is just one small part of the much bigger challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the whole of the National Park area, including things like visitor travel.  The National Park Authority will continue to work with North Yorkshire and Westmorland and Furness Councils to support their ambitions to reach net zero across their wider areas.  This activity will be reflected in a new Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan to be published next year.”

In total the National Park Authority runs around 20 buildings, including 10 public toilet blocks.  It has a total of 172 staff, including part-time workers and job shares.

At this morning’s meeting, proposed future actions were agreed, including to bring a new Carbon Reduction Plan, for the period 2025 to 2030, to a meeting of the full Authority in March next year.