Report of the Director, Manchester Climate Change Agency  

This report outlines the work of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership and its members, of which Manchester City Council is one, and of the Manchester Climate Change Agency between April 2023 and March 2024.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Manchester Climate Change Agency that outlined the work of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership and its members, of which Manchester City Council is one, and of the Manchester Climate Change Agency between April 2023 and March 2024.

Key points and themes in the report included:

·       Highlighting the key activities and impacts delivered between April 2023 and March 2024 by Manchester’s Climate Change Partnership and Agency, organised across four strategic priorities:

·       Targets and Tracking: Helping our city to set the right strategy and targets, and to understand its progress towards them.

·       Taking Action: Helping our city to take action, learn from others and build on best practice.

·       A Fair Transition: Supporting an inclusive, socially just transition to a zero carbon, climate resilient future.

·       Positioning Manchester: Helping to position Manchester as a world class city for climate action;

·       Providing 28 success stories from across the Partnership and Agency to illustrate the breadth and depth of climate action being taken across our city;

·       Noting that Manchester City Council’s own climate change action plan was aligned to the city’s science-based carbon budget and its zero carbon target date; and

·       Recognising that more urgent action at scale, by all sectors was needed to tackle the climate crisis.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

·       Welcoming the format of the report, commenting that it was well written and very accessible to the lay reader;

·       Where are the emissions targets for city available and reported;

·       Noting that Manchester’s Climate Change Framework (2020- 2025) set a science-based target for the city to reach zero carbon by 2038 and a carbon budget for direct emissions of 15m tCO2 for the period 2018-2100, however 10m tCO2 had been spent to date;

·       New developments should provide appropriate bike storage for all occupants;

·       Were faith groups engaged on the subject of climate change;

·       Information was sought in regard to Carbon Literacy Training for Council staff; and

·       Discussing carbon offsetting, commenting that caution had to be taken in regard to this.

The Director, Manchester Climate Change Agency informed the Committee that the emissions targets for the city were available in the Manchester Climate Change Framework 2020 – 2025 and the subsequent 2022 update. She said that a range of data sets were being used to collate and produce meaningful reporting of activity across the city, noting the complexity of the challenge of this. She acknowledged the carbon budget spend to date and the concerns expressed by the Committee. She said this was fully acknowledged and the climate crisis was understood. She said that the approach of the Agency and Partnership was to continue to drive this programme and agenda with purpose and positivity as it would be easy to become swamped and overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge. She said all levers and powers would be used to drive this work and stressed the importance of working collaboratively to tackle the climate crisis as no one organisation could resolve the problem in isolation. She said that there was a lot of positive actions and initiatives taking place across the city and the intention was to build on this momentum and increase this at scale and pace. She noted the discussion in relation to carbon offsetting and said this was not endorsed by the Manchester Climate Change Agency as a means of achieving the required emissions reductions.

The Director, Manchester Climate Change Agency said that faith groups were involved in the Partnership, adding that Dean Rogers Govender was member of the Board. She made reference to the Our Faith, Our Planet group, which aimed to promote shared values amongst faith communities, to educate and inform people about climate change and its effects and to share examples of best practice, with particular focus on preserving public buildings and places of worship and working towards reducing the carbon footprint.

The Director, Manchester Climate Change Agency said that the Partnership had brought a range of developers and specialists together from across the industry to consider carbon emissions and associated building standards and practices. She said retrofitting was also included in these conversations. She said this experience and approach enabled the sharing of good practice and lessons learned and this model could be used to engage with other business and sectors. She said that a significant barrier was funding, citing the experience of retrofitting commercial buildings and the associated liability of costs, in addition to an underdeveloped supply chain. She said work was being coordinated and progressed on this activity at a GMCA level. She commented that discussions were also ongoing with Department for Energy Security & Net Zero to unlock funding to deliver a pipeline of net zero projects at scale.

The Strategic Lead, Resources & Programmes said that to date 46% of Council staff were certified as Carbon Literacy trained. He said that the ambition was to achieve 50% by the end of 2024, noting that the delivery of Carbon Literacy training continued to make progress and was on target to reach Gold Accreditation Status by 2025. The Committee noted that a substantive report on this activity would be considered at the meeting scheduled for 13 February 2025. The Chair further stated that Manchester had launched an initiative to become the UK’s first Carbon Literate City as part of the drive to become zero carbon by 2038. This work would be co-ordinated by Manchester City Council working with The Carbon Literacy Project and aimed to achieve the status by getting the equivalent of 15% of the city’s population, 85,349 people trained and certified as Carbon Literate.

The Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport stated that the Council remained committed to delivering the net zero ambitions of the city as a partner of the agency and would continue to use all available levers and spheres of influence, both locally, nationally and internationally to progress this ambition.

The Chair in closing this item of business expressed her gratitude to the Director of Manchester Climate Change Agency and the important work that was being delivered. She further acknowledged that the team was relatively small and she asked that the appreciation of the Committee be relayed to the team. The Chair said that she was optimistic that the issue of climate change would addressed by the new government following recent policy announcements in relation to renewable energy and the creation of Great British Energy.

Decision

To note the report.