THE global wave of climate protest is heading to Carlisle, inspired by one passionate six-year-old.

Emily Graham, from Brampton, will urge next Tuesday’s meeting of Carlisle City Council to adopt a motion declaring a state of climate ‘emergency’. Protesters will gather at the Civic Centre from 6pm to support her plea.

The motion will be tabled by Labour council leader Colin Glover, hoping to follow 20 other councils across England who have adopted similar motions.

While the fight against climate change is global, emissions can have a local impact.

A new study by campaign group Friends of the Earth has revealed that several roads in Cumbria have breached air pollution levels - including one Carlisle street.

The study revealed a total of 126 sites in the north west that breached the annual air quality objective for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) levels, which is set to protect health.

While nitrogen dioxide is not a greenhouse gas, reactions in the atmosphere can convert it into ozone - a greenhouse gas.

Close to the ground, high levels of NO2 can cause a flare up of asthma, or symptoms such as coughing and difficulty breathing.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the leading cause of nitrogen dioxide pollution is emissions from road traffic.

The annual target for local authorities is 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) of nitrogen dioxide.

The highest annual pollution levels to be recorded on Cumbria’s roads were Bridge Street in Carlisle (44.9ug/m3), Castlegate in Penrith (47ug/m3), and Lowther Street in Kendal (42.54ug/m3).While no locations in Cumbria made the top ten worst polluting places in the north west, Oxford Road in Manchester came highest with 65ug/m3, followed by Dalton Square in Lancaster with 62ug/m3, and Garstang Road in Peston with 61ug/m3.

Simon Bowens, clean air campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “It’s unforgivable to see so many locations across the north west over air quality limits, leaving thousands of us breathing dangerously polluted air.

“Air pollution is often an issue thought of as affecting only the biggest cities. The reality is that unacceptably toxic air can be found across much of the UK, even in smaller towns.

“It is harming the health of people across the country and is especially bad for young children whose lungs are still developing.

“The government needs to step up and do more to deal with this air pollution crisis – they can’t just carry on leaving the difficult decisions with local authorities, many of which are severely under-resourced.”

A Carlisle City Council spokeswoman said: “Our air quality action plan outlines the measures that we are committed to take in order to improve air quality across Carlisle.

“We also produce an Annual Status Report which details all of our latest monitoring data and the progress made on each of the Action Plan measures.

“We continue to monitor and inspect the activities of our most polluting businesses, as well as responding to public complaints concerning burning, smoke and pollution.

“We enforce smokeless zones and monitor air quality management areas (AQMAs) in many areas.

“We are currently in the process reviewing our AQMAs and it is expected that some will soon be revoked due to significant reductions in traffic derived nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels.

“In general our continuous monitoring shows a steady improvement in air quality across the whole district over the last eight years.”

Conservative councillor Gareth Ellis stressed recent improvements in the city’s air quality, and a separation when discussing climate change and air pollution.

“Pollution isn’t really part of climate change,” Mr Ellis said.

“There’s nobody alive today in Carlisle who isn’t breathing cleaner air than at any other time in their lives.”