Our climate is changing due to human activity.
In 2019, we announced a Climate Emergency and have since set an ambition for York to be a net-zero carbon city by 2030.
We recognise the threat of climate change at both a global and local scale, and we're committed to delivering bold, local climate action to deliver economic and social benefits, such as:
- new green jobs
- economic savings
- market opportunities
- much improved well-being for York residents
Our ambitions will be reflected in the 'York Climate Change Strategy', once published.
Since the start of industrialisation, the average temperature of earth’s surface has increased by 1 degree Celsius; this process is called global warming and is caused by the Greenhouse Effect.
In 2015, the UK signed up to the Paris Agreement, which sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change. Governments agreed to a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a Special Report setting out the impacts and risks associated with a global temperatures increase of 1.5 degree Celsius and recommending that we keep warming below this threshold.
In 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to set a legally binding target to end its contribution to global warming by becoming carbon neutral by 2050.