On July 1st 2020, Manchester was announced as one of eight global cities selected for a new initiative to help cities and businesses work together for urgent climate action.
The 'City-Business Climate Alliance' (CBCA) has been developed by the C40, CDP and World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Through their existing networks the partners already support over 10,000 businesses and almost 1,000 cities to take action towards the Paris Agreement.
On Thursday 18th June, Manchester Climate Change Agency joined together with Energy Cities to host a webinar on setting Science Based Targets. Jonny Sadler presented our 2020 - 2025 Framework, explaining our background, our aim and our targets, and the social and economic benefits of them. The PDF of the presentation is available to download below.
Watch the recording of the webinar session on YouTube here if you missed it:
Manchester Climate Change Partnership Member MAST (Manchester Arts Sustainability Team) have caught attention over in The Netherlands for their pioneering ways of displaying sustainability in the cultural sector. Both HOME and MAST feature in an article called 'Real change goes beyond coffee cups and plastic stirrers' on the Elia website - take a look at it here:
Daily carbon emissions in the UK have dropped staggeringly more than a third during the period of lockdown, according to recent data. Although these reductions are short term, recovery post coronavirus must be green in order for these emissions to continue to reduce. Travel restrictions have contributed massively to the reduction of emissions during lockdown - almost all flights being restricted has inhibited people from flying and thus reduced emissions in the UK, but also carbon emissions from road transport such as cars has reduced by 60% during lockdown.
Manchester City Council are in the early stages of developing the city's 'Local Plan', for the period 2023-2038. Further information is available from www.manchester.gov.uk/localplan.
From 7th February to 1st May 2020 the Council have been consulting on the issues that need to be addressed by the Local Plan.
A copy of Manchester Climate Change Agency's response to the consultation is available to download below.
The Government’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic suggests “the magic money tree has always been there”, Gavin Elliott, head of the BDP Manchester studio believes, and raises the question of why funds were not previously used to tackle climate change. Coronavirus is of course an urgent, worldwide crisis, but any climate scientist will say the exact same thing about climate change, yet the Government don't register the same level of commitment to this crisis.
