NORTHUMBERLAND County Council’s cabinet have set out how they will meet its ambitious new climate change targets.

Cabinet members officially declared a climate emergency on Tuesday, June 11.

They also vowed to halve the authority’s carbon footprint by 2025, and make Northumberland carbon-neutral by 2030.

A comprehensive action plan, created by a steering group featuring representatives from different organisations, will outline the measures the council will take to meet its goals.

Coun. Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for the environment, said the action plan would be completed by Christmas.

Coun. Sanderson said: “In the world of local government, things move quickly. Things like exam results are very important, but this issue is higher than that.

“We will be looking at a whole range of exciting and interesting projects.

“We did think carefully about the word emergency, which is a strong word, but this is definitely an emergency for our planet.

“We have listened to young people and we are quite happy to use the strongest terminology to get this to the top of the agenda.”

The statement of intent showed that the council’s carbon emissions had dropped by a third since 2010.

It went on to state that the council was pursuing a number of projects to bring this to 50 per cent by 2025.

Coun. Peter Jackson, leader of the council, added: “This is a really important challenge for Northumberland County Council.

“It has been brought about for several reasons. The main one is we have a responsibility for all of Northumberland for all of our period of office.

“Climate change has been in the public view for the last few months. We wanted to bring this report forward to show how seriously we are taking it.”