VISIONING A ZERO CARBON CLIMATE RESILIENT MANCHESTER 2038 | MANCHESTER CLIMATE CHANGE PARTNERSHIP IN-PERSON EVENT 2024

As a Partnership we draw on a wealth of expertise, experience and insights from a variety of sectors across Manchester.

As an Agency, we facilitate regular opportunities for Partnership members to connect, collaborate and share their learning – all with the common goal of helping Manchester to become a zero carbon, climate resilient city. Our annual in-person networking event, now in its second year, is a key part of this.

Birley Fields Energy Centre tour

To start the day, attendees were invited to join a tour hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University and Vital Energi Utilities Limited, to find out about their decarbonisation project at Birley Fields Energy Centre, which, once complete, will reduce university-wide gas use by 27%.

The in-person networking day kicked off with a tour of Manchester Metroplitan University’s Birley Fields Energy Centre which is currently being decarbonised

Visioning a Zero Carbon, Climate Resilient Manchester 2038

Attendees heard from guest speakers representing Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, who spoke about best practice within the Partnership, the GM 5 Year Environment Plan - a key document the city's framework will link to - and the perspective of social justice at the heart of the climate transition. The group were then invited to share their ideas on visioning a zero carbon, climate resilient Manchester and identify short-term actions to move towards this vision.

Artist, Caroline Boyd from Boy Oh Boy Designs helped conceptualise these visions and actions, with focussed discussions around our homes and streets we live on, our high streets and neighbourhoods, our city centre, our green and blue infrastructure, our food, our places of learning, our businesses and industry, our culture, our sport, our faith, our vehicle travel, our active travel and our public sector.

The visions and actions captured during the day were the start of our early engagement on the 2025-2030 Manchester Climate Change Framework which will be developed in 2025.

Survey results

As part of the day attendees were asked a series of questions about which climate actions they believed would provide the greatest benefits to Manchester, how we should be measuring our success, and what actions they were planning to take, as an individual and an organisation, to support Manchester in achieving its climate goals.

Of the options provided, attendees believed that developing an integrated public transport system, improving home energy efficiency, expanding local renewable energy production and promoting repair and re-use of our items would provide the greatest benefits to Manchester.

These responses align to the 2022 Update to the Manchester Climate Change Framework which showed that buildings are responsible for 76% of the city’s direct emissions and ground transport is responsible for 24% and identified that the city needs to increase its production of and access to renewable energy by more than 1,500MW, if it is to successfully decarbonise its buildings and transport. Whilst indirect emissions are not included in Manchester’s carbon budget, the emissions that occur from our services and the things we buy and throw away are commonly 60% larger than our direct emissions.

Attendees felt that, in addition to the current reporting of direct energy related emissions carried out by the Partnership and Agency on behalf of the city, measuring the co-benefits of climate action, including poverty, inequality, happiness and wellbeing were also important.

The top individual actions that were highlighted by attendees as ways that they would support Manchester’s climate goals included: opting for active travel or public transport, choosing sustainable food options, repairing and reusing at home and considering green issues when voting. At an organisational level, attendees said that they would set carbon reduction targets, offer sustainability training for employees and promote sustainable employee commuting as their top priorities.

“For Manchester to achieve its climate vision, urgent action at pace and scale is required by everyone – we hope that our event helped inspire and invigorate even more personal and organisational action from all those who attended.”

Thank you to all those who attended and contributed during the workshops, thank you to Caroline Boyd for helping to bring our conversations to life. Thank you to our speakers: Prof. Steve Rothberg, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Manchester Metropolitan University, Liz Price, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University, Damion Shaw, Assistant Director Facilities Management and Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University, Lachlan Fulton, Head of Environment and Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University, Lylianna Allala, Climate Justice Director, City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, Peter Norris, Strategic and Economic Policy Manager, Manchester City Council and Mark Atherton, Director of Environment, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and thank you to Partnership member, Manchester Metropolitan University, for hosting this year’s event.

Interested in joining the Manchester Climate Change Partnership? Follow the link to find out more and apply.