Plymouth has declared a climate emergency and brought forward its deadline to become carbon neutral by 20 years.
The decision was made at a full meeting of the city council on Monday afternoon.
A motion put forward by the Labour-run council’s cabinet member for environment Sue Dann was given unanimous cross-party support.
It changes the deadline for the city to become carbon neutral from 2050 to 2030.
A “climate emergency action plan” will now be created for the council to consider in six months.
That will include a new plan on how the council will further cut its own carbon emissions.
The authority will be asking the Government for funding to put its plans into action.
Cllr Dann told the meeting: “We need the powers and the resources to be able to bring in more legislation and good practice.
“This cannot be done without money, better funding has to be made available.”
She said she and Cllr Darren Winter had met children who took part in Friday’s Youth Climate Strike in Plymouth.
Cllr Dann said: These young people were passionate, well informed and were able to clearly state what they wanted us to do - make a difference, do something.
“Yes they were chanting, yes they were shouting, yes they were angry, because like us in this chamber they care.”
Cllr Dann said the council had already put in place measures to reduce carbon dioxide output including by improving energy efficiency in homes, increasing solar power and encouraging electric cars.
Cllr Winter, Labour, said it was a case of "fire-fighting while the world burns".
He said children were at the forefront of change which needed to happen now and urged children to "keep shouting" as Plymouth was listening.
Climate Emergency is an internationally-recognised declaration to publicly highlight concern over climate change.
The motion calling on the council for support said: “Humans have already caused irreversible climate change, the impacts of which are being felt around the world.”
Councillors were told global temperatures had increased by 1C from pre-industrial levels and the world was on track to overshoot an agreed limit of a 1.5C rise before 2050.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now above 400 parts per million (ppm) compared to the safe level of 350ppm.
The motion said that to limit the effect of climate breakdown, it was crucial to reduce the average equivalent carbon emissions from the current 6.5 tonnes per person to below 2 tonnes as quickly as possible.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Global Warming has warned of enormous harm from a 2C rise, but says limiting to warming to 1.5C may still be possible.
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Labour councillor Pam Buchan supported the declaration and said it had been known for more than a century that carbon dioxide caused climate change.
She said the changes could been seen in more frequent extreme weather, sea-level rise, droughts and floods.
Oceans were becoming acidic and there were mass deaths of important animals such as reef-building coral.
Droughts led to shortages and conflict over land.
Cllr Buchan said: “Our collective, global inaction against human-made climate change is driving societies to war. This is a climate emergency.”
Conservative councillor Nick Kelly backed the call to declare a climate emergency and said it was a matter of life and death.
He said climate change should be at the centre of all activity and Plymouth as an Ocean City should lead the UK.
Cllr Kelly said: "We have got to change what is happening throughout the world and what is happening on the doorstep."
Labour cabinet member Sue McDonald says children took part in the protest on Friday because their environmental future was being "stolen before their eyes."
The council's Labour leader Tudor Evans - an environmental sciences graduate - said the world had shown it could work together successfully when CFC gases which were damaging the ozone layer were banned.
He said action was needed by everyone and Plymouth was in the front line of rising sea levels.
Conservative Rebecca Smith supported the declaration and praised community groups working across the city.
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She highlighted work by the Government to tackle climate change which had cut greenhouse gas emissions by 23 per cent from 2009 to 2017.
Independent Kevin Neil says his "failed and still failing" generation had allowed climate change to happen, but there was still time to do something about it.
He said everyone should think about how they could make a difference and work together across the globe.
Plymouth Green Party welcomed the declaration but said it was important the council was held accountable for the commitment.
