Workstream 5 - Catalysing Change
5.1 Carbon Literacy training continues to be delivered and is now mandatory for all staff. Currently 1,279 Council staff (including Northwards Housing) and 54 elected members have undertaken the training and have received certification from the Carbon Literacy Project. A further 55 staff and 2 elected members are awaiting their certification. A carbon literacy training session for members is planned for 30 March 2022.
An enhanced Carbon Literacy training programme is being delivered across the Culture and Events teams to upskill officers and support external event organisers.
Additional resources are included in the 2022-23 budget proposal to support the delivery of carbon literacy training, including commissioning external support to develop training tailored to needs of individual services.
5.3 Climate change actions are now included in the Service Plan template across the organisation and responses from services will be collated to understand what actions are taking place across the organisation. The budget for 2022-23 includes additional capacity cutting across all five workstreams to support delivery the Climate Change Action Plan.
5.4 All Climate Change Ward Plans are now in place and being delivered in communities with support from the Climate Change Neighbourhood Officers and members. Promotional materials and communication plans are being developed in collaboration with the Communications Team and will provide an opportunity to share good practice and stories across the wards. The Climate Change Neighbourhood Officers have also held and planned a series of community events to continue to engage with residents across a number of wards, these include a series of climate emergency events in Burnage, Whalley Range and Wythenshawe plus a Creative Climate Resilience Community Pageant in Newton Heath.
The learnings from the ‘In Our Nature’ (ION) programme is being compiled and work is progressing to develop the next phase of the programme through a bid to the National Lottery. The six community groups established through the community assemblies, each developed an action plan to reduce carbon emissions in their local area, based on the emissions data provided by the Tyndall Centre. A six month review for the ION programme has been published and is available to view here.
5.5 Monthly meetings have been taking place between the Communications team, the Deputy Chief Executive, Executive Member for Environment, and the Zero Carbon team to raise and share internal and external communications opportunities. There has been a noticeable increase of positive news being shared through social media channels and internal communications, see examples of press coverage under this section below. Promotional materials and web content focused on the Neighbourhoods community engagement work is underway, with information on how residents can get involved in climate action.
Three Member Learning Sessions took place this quarter, with the aim being to provide an opportunity for members to become more familiar with the Climate Change Action Plane 2020-25, the Council’s emissions data and carbon budget, the actions being delivered, progress made and a deeper look at the activities across neighbourhoods.
5.6 Two Deputy Director’s at the Manchester Climate Change Agency (MCCA) started in post during this quarter. Council funding to continue to support existing posts at the MCCA has been approved for 2022-23.
5.7 The Council’s role on the Manchester Climate Change Partnership continues with the Deputy Chief Executive and the Executive Member for Environment attending the Board. The Director of the MCCA provided an update to the Environment and Climate Change Scrutiny Committee in February 2022 on the refresh of Manchester’s Climate Change Framework 2020-25.
5.8 The Education Team are planning a conference for Manchester’s education establishments on the 30 June 2022, which aims to provide headteachers, school business managers and governors with the knowledge and support they need to explore ways of decarbonising their estates.
Officers from across the Council are meeting to discuss the ongoing climate change related activities across schools to develop a plan for a coordinated approach.
5.9 Work is underway to map the CCAP actions to Greater Manchester’s environmental workstreams and review our role within these workstreams to ensure synergies are identified and to maximise opportunities for Manchester. Council officers continue to engage with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester. An example of this is the Executive Member for Environment supported by the Zero Carbon team attended the Greater Manchester Green City Region Board this quarter to present on the delivery of Manchester's CCAP and to share best practice.
5.10 COP26 took place in November 2021, so this action is now complete, however next steps are being explored.
5.11 Work on the European funded URBACT Zero Carbon Cities project continues, and the Horizon 2020 Grow Green project has been extended to November 2022. Development of the Zero Carbon Culture Guide in partnership with sustainability specialists, Julie's Bicycles, was supported by the work started as part of the URBACT C-Change project. Launched in January 2022, the Culture Guide offers advice to cultural organisations on how to reduce their emissions. It will be used as part of the Council’s grant process for funding cultural organisations.
5.12 A refresh of the Work and Skills Strategy includes a zero carbon theme with several key actions. The Green Skills Action Plan will be reviewed to include a number of milestones that will be reported on within these CCAP Quarterly Progress Reports. The Work and Skills team are engaging with the Education team to ensure they are involved in the conference planned for schools and education establishments in June 2022.