Workstream #5 Catalysing change
5.1: Carbon Literacy training continues to be delivered. 1168 council staff and 53 members are certified carbon literate, taking account of staff who have left the organisation.
5.3: Areas of focus for embedding climate ambition into the Council’s decision-making process have been identified, these include:
• Adding Zero Carbon as a priority to the internal Business Plan 2022/23 template.
• Carrying out a skills audit across directorates to assess the need for more bespoke climate change training.
• Further work on monitoring the benefit of climate action, for example monitoring supplier commitments through the procurement process.
• Further research into carbon pricing tools to help calculate the value of carbon reduction and environmental measures.
The Culture Team has developed a Zero Carbon Culture Guide and guidance for funded Culture organisations, outlining the Council’s requirements within new funding agreements. The Guide will be rolled out in 2022 in preparation for the next Culture funding programme commencing in 2023.
5.4: The Climate Change Ward Plans have been developed and will be in place across all Wards by the end of December 2021. Following on from the success of the Climate Assemblies, work continues to engage with the In Our Nature groups and grow climate change activity across the city. A total of 63 people attended the Climate Assembly events and participated in the development of the mandate, which was presented at COP26 in Glasgow. An evaluation of the Climate Assemblies is underway and will capture participants feedback along with next steps to support the participants and recommendations. The report is expected to be published in January 2022 and will be available at In Our Nature | Commonplace. Further examples of community engagement, which has been taking place this quarter includes Ward Climate Summits and the development of a Climate Youth Network in Old Moat and Withington.
5.5: Press and Social Media coverage has continued across all workstreams with a particular focus during this quarter on COP26, the Civic Quarter Heat Network, the new Cycleway schemes, plans for a large-scale energy generation project and positive behaviour change messages around waste over the festive period. Further details on press coverage can be found later in the report.
Additions continue to be made to the Council’s Zero Carbon webpages, for example information on Green Skills.
5.6: All Manchester Climate Change Agency (MCCA) posts that are funded by the Council have now been filled. The Council's funding has helped to unlock contributions from members of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership (MCCP), which has enabled the funding of an additional Deputy Director role.
5.7: The Council is working closely with the MCCP on the development of the Manchester Climate Change Framework 2.0, which includes an evidence base produced by Anthesis and a number of sector specific workshops. Further work on aviation has also taken place, with a report to Environment & Climate Change Scrutiny Committee on 09 December 2021, presented by the Manchester Airport Group (see action 2.7 update).
5.8: The Council's Education and Skills team are supporting the delivery of this action. Work is underway to engage Headteachers and Business Managers across Manchester’s schools to provide advice and support to enable schools to reduce their operational emissions. Links with schools are also being made in relation to the Green Skills agenda.
5.9: The Greater Manchester Pension Fund joined discussions with a number of other UK and Nordic pension funds to agree to spend £95.4bn on clean energy and climate investments by 2030.
5.10: The Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate and the Edinburgh Declaration on Biodiversity were signed as part of COP26, the supporting event was attended in person by the Executive Member for the Environment. We are looking at ways of how we embed some of the pledges in these Declarations into our CCAP 2020-25 and how we can influence through our partnerships, for example with the Manchester Food Board.
The Manchester Climate Manifesto was presented to COP26 in person by Envirolution along with a video about the Climate Assembly. Manchester also participated in the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission events as part of Core Cities UK, with London Councils and Future Cities Catapult.
5.11: Work on the Euro Commission funded URBACT Zero Carbon Cities project has continued. The Horizon 2020 Grow Green project received confirmation of its extension to Autumn 2022, to enable the ongoing monitoring and dissemination of the project. The C-Change project has supported the development of a Zero Carbon Culture Guide by Julie's Bicycle to support cultural organisations to reduce their carbon emissions.
5.12: A Green Skills Action Plan has been developed and shared with the Zero Carbon Skills Co-ordination Group to gain partner engagement.