Manchester Climate Change Strategy 2016-50: Manchester Friends of the Earth response
Following the international climate agreement in Paris last December, the Manchester Climate Change Agency is consulting on an update to the city’s climate change strategy.
Manchester Friends of the Earth welcomed the commitment that “Manchester will play its full part in limiting the impacts of climate change… and by 2025 will be on a path to being a zero carbon city by 2050.”
However, some parts of the MCCS, and the implementation plan for the next 5 years, currently fail to meet the stated ambition to stay “ahead of the curve”. Whilst the MCCS represents a convincing consolidation of recent discussions on climate change in Greater Manchester and some direction on ‘where next’, it cannot be said to be truly visionary. For example, it is extremely likely that deeper and more rapid cuts in climate emissions will be required before 2040. Recent analysis, for example, would suggest a target of a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (on 2005 levels) will be required by 2035.
Our response covered the following specific aspects in more detail: carbon impact of Manchester Airport, carbon impact of road-building, support for walking & cycling (active travel), zero-carbon building standards, waste & recycling, fossil fuel investments and carbon budgeting.
Our full response is available via Dropbox (pdf).
