NORTH Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) is set to give itself the goal of achieving “carbon neutrality” by 2030.

Council leaders have said the move has been inspired by the campaigning of young school strikers, including the 16-year-old Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

In a statement the council said it has a focus on promoting “sustainable economic growth” and that it recognises “the important role it plays in protecting and enhancing the county’s environment and economy”.

In support of this, it said a motion will be raised by Cllrs Richard Cooper and David Chance at NYCC today (Wednesday).

The motion will call on England’s largest council to commit to produce its own carbon reduction plan in an effort to beat the Government goal of 2050

and to aspire to achieve net carbon neutrality by, or as close as possible to, 2030.

NYCC said it has already formed an executive sub-group and scrutiny task group concentrating on climate change, and a report to this special scrutiny group outlines the progress to date and proposes the advancement of “a broad-ranging review” alongside the development of “a structured climate change strategy”.

It is a proposal which would see environmental impact considered as standard across everything from policy to procurement.

The paper, to go before members the afternoon of the county council meeting, outlines how a series of work streams should examine four key points in detail.

These include the council’s own carbon footprint, including its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; the establishment of a Climate Change action plan, setting short/medium and long-term priorities; the development of an impact assessment tool to ensure that climate change priorities are integrated into all council functions and polices; and establishing robust governance to ensure a consistent and clear message on the issue.

North Yorkshire’s leader Cllr Carl Les instigated the approach in a statement at full council earlier this year.

He said: “The passion shown by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden and the way that was embraced by our young people who want the issue addressed continues to impress me and in return I want to be clear that we share that commitment to the world we live in.

“We are lucky to call North Yorkshire our home and the work of these new groups will undoubtedly join up the good work we have done, help us understand where we are and what more we can do and deliver us a more robust structure to protect our environment in a more formal way.

“These are actions, not just words.”

Richard Flinton, North Yorkshire’s chief executive, added: “Our current work programme already includes reducing our CO2 emissions and water consumption and minimising waste, for example Allerton Waste Recovery Plant and our Rotters composting initiative.

“We have taken a clear stance to protect North Yorkshire in our Joint Minerals and Waste Plan, encourage sustainable economic growth and take environmental and social impact into consideration alongside financial factors in our procurement.

“But we can and will do more and this proposal to scrutiny is a good step in the right direction.”

Part of its current work to reduce carbon emissions is the council’s street light energy reduction programme.

It is anticipated that the county council’s street lighting energy bill could be halved as a result of this programme. This also suggests that it will achieve a reduction of over 3.3k tonnes in the council’s carbon footprint.

LEDs also do not contain elements normally found in standard lighting such as mercury.