A COUNCIL should aim to become carbon neutral by 2025 and its district the same by 2030, councillors have recommended.

South Oxfordshire District Council’s new Climate Emergency Advisory Committee met in public for the first time last week.

It discussed what the council should do to respond to the climate emergency – which all Oxfordshire authorities have now declared – through all of its policies and projects.

The ambition to be a carbon neutral authority by 2025 is stronger than officers had recommended.

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They had said the council should look to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Green councillor Sue Roberts, who chairs the committee, said: “We’ve recommended a target of becoming a carbon neutral district by 2030, and went even further, to suggest a very challenging target for the council, within its own operations, to be carbon neutral by 2025.

“This will require liaison with other councils and groups as well as funding from central government, but we must act quickly and decisively if we are to contribute to becoming a carbon neutral society.”

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All recommendations made by the politically balanced group of 12 councillors will now need to be approved by the council’s cabinet and full council before they can be adopted. The panel was adopted after May's elections.