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Routemap to Carbon Negative

Routemap to Carbon Negative

York and North Yorkshire’s Routemap to Carbon Negative sets out the region’s ambitious plans to be net zero carbon by 2034 and carbon negative by 2040.

Read York & North Yorkshire’s Routemap to Carbon Negative:

The Routemap is a co-owned plan. Every local authority, business, organisation, charity and community has a role to play. In July 2022, the Routemap was adopted by the LEP Board, and a parallel process of endorsement or adoption amongst local authorities is now underway. 

Low Carbon Strategy 2

Background

As storms, floods and wildfires intensify across the world, there is growing urgency for collective action to tackle climate change. In York and North Yorkshire, we have a critical contribution to make to national and global efforts; we have the potential to go beyond net zero, and become England’s first carbon negative region. With two national parks, three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and over 70% of our geography being used for agriculture, we are uniquely positioned to use our natural assets to capture and store carbon.  As a leader in decarbonisation and world class innovation assets, we can harness the economic opportunities of the transition, creating jobs and attracting investment to the region. This Routemap provides an ambitious pathway for local authorities, businesses, charities, academia and communities to come together to deliver carbon reduction at the necessary pace and scale to reach net zero by 2034, and net negative by 2040. 

The specific objectives of the Routemap are:

  • To provide strategic direction and a coordinated approach to decarbonisation;
  • To catalyse collaborative action at pace and scale;
  • To build confidence that reaching net zero and beyond to carbon negative is feasible; 
  • To harness the economic opportunities of net zero, leveraging public and private sector investment; and
  • To position York and North Yorkshire at the forefront of national climate action and provide a platform to influence Government policy and funding.

Routemap Development Process to Date

A number of studies have informed the development of the Routemap. This includes research undertaken by the Tyndall Centre to establish a carbon budget for the region that ensures we make our ‘fair’ contribution towards the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Following this, York and North Yorkshire LEP commissioned a study to understand potential pathways to get to net zero across key sectors – transport, buildings, industry, power, and land use and agriculture (York and North Yorkshire’s Carbon Abatement Pathways (CAP) study)

To date, over 200 stakeholders have been engaged in the CAP study and Routemap development process, including:

Summer 2020:

Consultation and follow-up workshops to seek initial views on the study findings and to co-develop policy. 

November 2020:

Full study findings were shared with stakeholders, alongside workshops to collaboratively develop projects in areas where urgent action is required. This further stakeholder feedback was incorporated into the Carbon Abatement Pathways Study final report, which was finalised and published on the LEP’s website in March 2021.

Summer 2021:

The LEP hosted a series of Roundtable discussions designed to challenge and validate the CAP study findings, alongside consolidating prior stakeholder engagement to agree key actions within the Routemap to Carbon Negative. An output of this session, was a summary of stakeholders’ views on the key measures and targets from the CAP study, which form the “scale of ambition” elements within the Routemap. You can view the report here.

Over the last year:

We have undertaken an open consultation and further stakeholder engagement to develop the strategic priorities and sector actions plans within the Routemap.

Consultation

The initial draft of York and North Yorkshire’s Routemap to Carbon Negative went out to consultation between the 28th February and 17th March 2022. The consultation aimed to gather feedback on the draft Routemap, with a specific focus on the “strategic priorities” and “actions plans”.

The suite of reports below provides a summary of key themes from the consultation feedback focused on the different sections within the Routemap. Each report details headline actions to address the feedback received:

Enablers Transport
Power Business & Industry
Heat & Buildings Environment: Land Use, Agriculture & Marine

In areas where it was necessary to bring stakeholders together to discuss certain issues arising from the consultation feedback and to develop further actions, we ran a number of stakeholder workshops on specific topics. From each session, a report was produced summarising key discussion points and actions:

Business & Industry Workshop Marine & Coastal Workshop Session
Net Zero Tourism Workshop Session Natural Capital Workshop Session
Community Climate Action Workshop Session

Using the outputs from the consultation and additional workshop sessions, we’ve revised the strategic priorities and action plans within the Routemap.