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 March 31, but with all committee meetings cancelled in response to the coronavirus epidemic, the Authority’s Chief Executive David Butterworth has used delegated ‘urgency/emergency’ powers to formally adopt it.

The plan contains a new objective which commits the Authority to reducing its emissions by 95 per cent by 2030, compared with a 2005 baseline.

Over the next five years the Authority will install further renewable or low energy technologies across its estate.

All the Authority’s leased vehicles will be switched to plug-in electric and chairman Carl Lis, said: “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. "