A COUNCIL debate about fracking descended into a row over climate change, with one councillor calling the issue a “hysterical left-wing religion”.

Some councillors said they were “shocked” and “embarrassed” to hear the views of their colleagues at a full council meeting on Thursday.

City of York Council members were asked to approve a motion criticising Government plans on fracking and agreeing that it contributes to the threat of climate change.

But Cllr Mark Warters (Independent, Osbaldwick and Derwent) hit out at Labour for asking that the council also stops investing in companies that extract fossil fuels.

Cllr Stuart Barnes said: “Climate change is both catastrophic and now unavoidable. Fracking is a prospect that excites only the Conservatives in this country but almost nobody else.”

Cllr Warters accused him of “virtue signalling nonsense”and added: “I won’t support this amendment because it is purely based around the hysterical left-wing religion of climate change. Those that succeed us will laugh at us in 50 years time for debating such nonsense as this. Technology will make concerns of global energy production and use irrelevant in time.”

And Cllr Tony Richardson (Conservative, Haxby and Wigginton) said: “The temperature in this world is going up naturally, nothing to do with carbon emissions. Ultimately there are a number of things that are out of our hands.”

Cllr Barnes said it is “embarrassing” for York to have “representatives who are clearly climate change deniers” and Cllr Lars Kramm (Green, Micklegate) said: “I am honestly shocked about the blunt climate change denials we heard from Cllr Waters and Cllr Richardson. Scientists are surer that greenhouse gas is causing climate change than they are that smoking causes cancer. We need to actively challenge these ‘alternative facts’ and people accept the reality and address the problem.”