City council’s new five-year action plan aims to save the equivalent of 43,000 tonnes of carbon and keep Manchester on course to be carbon zero by 2038
Manchester City Council is in the process of finalising its latest climate change action plan, to cover the five years 2025-30. The key aim is to significantly reduce the volume of carbon produced as a direct result of its own operations. Carbon is, of course, the biggest contributor to harmful climate change.
Photo by Mylo Kaye / Unsplash
The draft climate change action plan 2025-30 and draft citywide framework were considered by the council’s Environment, Climate Change and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday and will go before an executive meeting on October 15 for final approval and adoption.
As set out in the plan, the city council will aim to reduce its emissions by 44% by 2030, in the process saving the equivalent of 43,000 tonnes of carbon. That in turn will mean the city is on course to meet its target of being carbon zero by 2038.
As well as setting this key target, the new climate change action will also cover how the council will strengthen its leadership role over the next five years, influencing and supporting residents and businesses across the city to reduce their own emissions. In addition, the council will lobby for national and international policies and initiatives to help tackle climate change.
The new plan has been designed to align with the citywide plan for the same five-year period produced by Manchester Climate Change Agency and Manchester Climate Change Partnership.
To achieve its goal of being carbon zero by 2038, the council must stay within a ‘carbon budget’, the maximum level of emissions over a set period. Over the past five-year period, the council emitted some 122,000 tonnes of carbon – well below the carbon budget established in the last action plan of 126,336 tonnes. It achieved this through measures such as retrofitting 40 of its buildings to improve energy efficiency, installing new LED street lighting and replacing more than 50% its bin lorries with electric vehicles.
In the new action plan for 2025-30, the carbon budget is 79,300 tonnes – a reduction of some 41,500 tonnes or 44%. The council’s emission reduction programme aims to do better than this with savings of 42,871 tonnes of carbon achieved through the following steps alone:
- 17,600 tonnes saved through Power Purchase Agreement to buy renewable energy directly from a newly created solar farm from 2026
- 12,011 tonnes by replacing the council’s remaining waste and operational vehicles with low-emission vehicles
- 6,370 tonnes through ongoing programme of building sustainability measure
- 3,030 tonnes by maximising efficiency of street lighting network
- 3,000 tonnes by decarbonising the Manchester Energy Network shared heating system used by various council and other city centre buildings, currently run on natural gas
- 500 tonnes through encouraging more sustainable business travel for staff, such as cycling, walking and using public transport
The plan sets out 62 actions, including measures to support and drive further improvements across the city in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, renewable energy, the retrofitting of commercial and residential buildings to enhance energy efficiency, net zero standards for new buildings wherever possible, green public transport and cycling and walking facilities, and creating and linking new green spaces and waterfronts.
Cllr Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment at Manchester City Council, says: ‘We all have a role in tackling climate change. The council is determined to lead by example. The climate change action plan sets out how we will continue to play our part to the full, both in further reducing our own carbon emissions and in supporting businesses and residents to reduce theirs, as well as lobbying to shape regional, national and even international policy.
‘Not everything is in our control, and there are many challenges ahead – not least the financial constraints we face in common with all councils – but we remain determined to deliver.’
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