Manchester City Council remains on track to achieve its goal of becoming a zero carbon organisation by 2038 or earlier, the annual report into progress against its Climate Change Action Plan concludes.
The report looks at the Council’s direct carbon emissions for 2023/24, the fourth year of the current Climate Change Action Plan which runs from April 2020 to the end of March 2025.
Working to a science-based target set by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the Council has only used 75.5% of its allocated 126, 336 tonnes carbon budget for the five year period with just one year (20%) remaining.
That means there is still up to 31,173 tonne of carbon emissions within the carbon ‘budget’ and barring exceptional circumstances the Council will end the 2020-25 period on the right path.
This is despite the Council’s overall emissions going up by seven per cent between 2022/23 and 2023/24, from 22,056 tonnes of carbon to 23,056 tonnes – exceeding the 21,256 tonnes target for 23/24. The increase is almost entirely attributable to the National Grid using an increased proportion of fossil fuels (natural gas and coal) to generate electricity, which has an unavoidable knock-on effect on the council’s figures for the year.
The Council is currently developing a new Climate Change Action Plan setting out how the organisation will continue reducing its carbon emissions over the next five year period, 2025-30, to stay on course to become zero carbon by 2038 or earlier.
The council has been forward thinking in its carbon reduction measures, including pursuing a Power Purchase Agreement which will see it purchase renewable electricity directly from a newly-created solar farm from 2025 onwards.
However, the next phase will be more challenging for a number of reasons, including the difficult national funding landscape and the retrofitting of council-owned housing at scale due to issues such as the technical complexity and an industry-wide skills gap. The Council is playing its part in addressing these wider challenges.
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment, said:
“Combatting climate change needs a concerted collective effort and we are determined to lead by example in taking measures to dramatically cut, and ultimately eliminate our own direct carbon emissions.
“While strong progress has been made, as the latest annual report demonstrates, we know that we cannot let up in the years ahead if we are to meet our target of becoming a zero carbon organisation by 2038 or earlier.
“We look forward to working with government to support policies and initiatives which will help combat climate change at a national level.”
The Climate Change Action Plan annual report will be considered by the Council’s Environment, Climate Change and Scrutiny Committee when it meets on Thursday 5 September.