Manchester City Council pledges first £1 million in strategy to tackle climate change.

Manchester City Council has outlined ambitious targets to tackle global warming, proposing 17 principles to guide behavioural change, reduce carbon emissions and adapt the way we live.

The Council is seeking to establish two related bodies, the Manchester Carbon Reduction Innovation and Investment Fund, and Manchester Offset, to help stimulate innovation in tackling climate change. Partner organisations will be asked to match the £1 million initial investment in the project.

Manchester's annual CO2 emissions are currently over 3.3 million tonnes (47% commercial, 30% domestic and 23% transport) and the 17 principles of tackling climate change in Manchester recognise the need to address the issue on two fronts: reducing gas emissions to minimise future global climate change and planning for the unavoidable local impacts of climate change.

Evidence shows that a level of climate change is inevitable. People might think that a rise in Global temperatures is a good thing, but future changes don't necessarily mean that we can expect to enjoy warmer, better weather. In fact, the increase in the temperature of the Earth, caused by greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere, leads to more unpredictable weather, more intense bursts of rainfall throughout the year, interspersed with periods of very dry weather and more gales and high winds.

Councillor Neil Swannick, Executive Member for Environment, said: "Climate change is inevitable and we have no choice but to address the issue in a practical way. No single sector or organisation can deliver the necessary level of reduction on its own. We have a collective responsibility to reduce the negative impact as far as we are able and everyone has something to contribute."

Manchester aims to be a Low Carbon City by 2020. The Council is recommending that it adopts UK's 60% reduction target by 2020 this would mean for Manchester: a reduction of over 1 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes per year. This can appear to be a daunting goal when faced with the figures, and so the strategy identifies 'bite-sized' targets which are broken down into three key areas; commercial, transport and domestic.

According to Councillor Swannick: "It can seem overwhelming when you look at the reductions we need to make, but the scale of the challenge is achievable. All actions to reduce emissions, however small, have a positive, cumulative effect. We don't have to damage our quality of life in order to combat climate change, but we do need to change the way that we live."

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