Workstream #5 - Catalysing change
5.1: Carbon Literacy training continues to be delivered. 1132 council staff and 39 members are certified carbon literate, taking account of staff who have left the organisation. 57 staff from Greenwich Leisure Limited and Manchester Active are also certified carbon literate, as a result of training delivered by the Council’s Carbon Literacy trainer. Supporting partners to become carbon literate is one of the Gold accreditation criteria.
5.3: Carbon data is now reviewed at all stages within the decision-making process for capital programmes and work has begun to identify suitable metrics to support ongoing measurement of carbon impact. Further embedding carbon into the full range of decision-making structures is a key focus of the Future Shape of the Council core activity.
5.4: To ensure a consistent approach, the Climate Change Neighbourhood Officers have developed a template for capturing climate action within ward plans. These will be completed for all wards by the end of the year. A secondee from Groundwork started in post in September and will focus on the nature-based solutions activity over the next 11 months. The ‘In Our Nature’ programme is focused on six pilot areas:
- Hulme
- Levenshulme
- Moss Side
- Newton Heath and Miles Platting
- Northern Quarter
- Rusholme
Resident groups have been established through local workshops run by Amity. The Arrowfield Estate decarbonisation project, being delivered in partnership with Southway Homes, has also been added to the In Our Nature project. In Our Nature Community Assembly sessions were rolled out over the summer, involving 5 local groups. Mandates were developed as part of these sessions, which will be presented to Councillors and Neighbourhood Officers late September. The outcome of this work will be taken to COP26 in November.
5.5: The Communications team have been working on updating content on the zero carbon pages of the Council’s website, making sure the content is correct and up to date, working with the Zero Carbon Team to produce accessible reports for the website and working through a coherent structure for the web pages. A copywriter has been commissioned to support with the content creation.
5.6: Several roles at the Manchester Climate Change Agency (MCCA) have now been filled. A Policy and Strategy Lead starts in post from September and a new Director of the Agency will start on the 1 October. A Deputy Director will be recruited in the autumn. The total number of posts will increase to eight, with five posts being funded by the Council in 2021-22.
5.7: Manchester Climate Change Partnership (MCCP) launched their Net Zero Carbon New Build Policy Document this quarter, setting out a proposal for all new buildings in the city from 2023 to be zero carbon.
5.9: The Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee has written to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund regarding divestment. MCC representatives continue to engage in all relevant meetings at elected member and officer level.
5.10: Manchester is involved in a range of projects with the highest profile being the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, which will report its findings at COP26. There is also ongoing engagement via Greater Manchester, the North West and directly with Glasgow.
5.11: Anthesis have been procured as part of the Zero Carbon Cities project to support the Council and MCCA to carry out the refresh of the Climate Change Framework 2.0 and develop Manchester’s Implementation Plan for the Zero Carbon Cities project. The MCCA are managing a €10,000 budget allocated for delivery with the help of Envirolution. This small-scale action will be a series of community workshops to formulate a citizen’s response to the climate emergency as part of the ‘In Our Nature’ programme. A workshop for Manchester stakeholders on Manchester’s Integrated Action Plan was held in September.
Whilst the Grow Green projects continues, officers are looking more broadly at funding opportunities within the Horizon Europe Programme.
5.12: A draft high-level Green Skills Plan was developed in consultation with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Local Green Skills Partnership Group. Early findings were reported into the MCCP Further work continues to develop a tangible work programme and key performance indicators, which will inform the Work and Skills Strategy refresh.