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19
Nov 2022
Calls for council to go 'further and faster' on climate change in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire County Council has faced pressure from opposition councillors to reconsider how its environmental actions are managed before postponing a decision on whether fracking is appropriate in the area.
A full meeting of the authority saw a North Yorkshire Climate Coalition, which includes 18 environmental groups, calling on the authority to move “further and faster” over environmental issues, and drop party politics to introduce measures more rapidly.
The coalition pressed the council - which declared a climate emergency in the summer - to address the twin climate and ecological emergencies and to harness “huge economic opportunities” during a transition to a cleaner, greener economy.
The meeting was told that the authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, had this week called for people to support the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Change Commission move to declare an ecological emergency, before his Conservative group voted to stop the creation of a biodiversity crisis working group at the council.
Councillor Greg White, executive member for climate change and customer engagement, said the authority did not want to be judged on what it said, but rather its actions, and that its plan for cutting carbon was “bold”.
Coun White added while the council was working to introduce carbon-cutting measures it also needed to focus on its main purpose, which was to provide much-needed services.
Nevertheless, opposition councillors insisted more action and a greater focus was needed.
Read more:
- Call for council to oppose fracking in North Yorkshire
- Harrogate and Knaresborough MP denies voting in favour of fracking
The administration then faced numerous questions from opposition members over its environmental actions, ranging from public transport to buying zero carbon electricity, and from installing air source heat pumps to offloading pension fund investments in fossil fuels.
Conservative members said the authority put environmental considerations at the heart of its existing system, which was be best placed to guide the council over cutting carbon and accused opposition members of “grandstanding”.
The meeting also saw opposition councillors prevented from debating proposals to brand fracking in a county which has declared a climate emergency as inappropriate, so the authority’s executive could consider them first and report its conclusions at the next full council meeting in February.
Labour, Liberal Democrat, Independent and Green group leaders lined up to back proposals designed to create greater oversight of the authority’s climate change actions, with some claiming the Conservatives were “resisting transparency”.
Green group leader Councillor Andy Brown accused the administration of “downplaying the order of the problem” and said they needed to develop “a clear, costed action plan”.
He said:
Ahead of Conservative councillors voting down two climate change proposals, they highlighted that while funding was the biggest determinant of potential climate change action, from April the county’s new unitary authority was facing a black hole of up to £70m.
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