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Queen's University Belfast has set itself a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

That is 10 years ahead of Northern Ireland's legally-binding national target of 2050.

The Net Zero Plan is the successor to the Carbon Management Plan, published by the university in 2010.

That had reduced emissions by 21%, mostly through energy efficiency and waste reduction projects.

The university has admitted most of the "low-hanging fruit" in terms of straightforward emission reductions has already been harvested.

"The real challenge comes with those emissions that are indirect," said Sara Lynch, head of sustainability at the university.

"So how are our staff and students travelling to the university; how are our staff travelling while on business; what are we buying; and what is the carbon associated with those products? It's trying to drive that down.

"That's much more challenging but something we need to address."

Vexatious politics

Net zero is when the amount of greenhouse gases, like carbon and methane, released into the atmosphere is offset by the steps taken to remove those emissions from the air.

The university's plan was launched on Thursday by renowned environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt.

He told an audience gathered at the university he was concerned that some young people felt excluded from addressing climate change but that the target set by Queen's was "very exciting".

"For a big institution like Queen's University, 2040 is just around the corner," he said.

"Some of the harder stuff entails active partnerships with other key players in Belfast - and of course that's not as easy as it should be today because the politics of Northern Ireland are pretty vexatious.

"Until that gets sorted, it's hard, even for the real leaders in a university like Queen's, it's really hard to do."

The Net Zero Plan plan has taken the university's 2018-19 emissions - 105,430 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent - as a baseline because of the disruption Covid-19 has caused in recent years.

In a survey last year, the sector body Universities UK - of which Queen's is a member - found there had been an increase in the number of universities across the UK committing to net-zero targets.

In 2017 Queen's announced that it was set to disinvest from fossil fuels after a two-year student campaign.

The university said at the time that it would remove investment from extraction and production companies by 2025.

In 2015 students from the campaign group Fossil Free QUB occupied part of the university's administration building in a protest to highlight their call for Queen's to sell shares it holds in fossil fuel firms.