Residents, businesses and community groups – including 300 young people, from schools across Greater Manchester, joined together yesterday to launch the region’s environmental plan.
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, used his speech at the summit to respond to calls from young people in the region – and across the globe – to take urgent action on climate change.
The city region’s bold ambition is to be carbon-neutral by 2038, 12 years’ ahead of the Government’s own target.
Greater Manchester’s second Green Summit took place at The Lowry Theatre, in Salford Quays.
As Greater Manchester’s Local Industrial Strategy continues to be developed, the Mayor called for the Government to invest in the region’s long-term Environment Plan.
The Paris-aligned, science based, plan sets out how Greater Manchester will become one of the globe’s healthiest, cleanest and greenest city-regions.
The plans include the largest Clean Air Zone outside of London, covering a population of nearly three million people across 500 square miles.
Greater Manchester is also the first English region to come up with detailed proposals to substitute fossil fuels with low-carbon energy alternatives by 2038; as part of this all of the region’s ten councils are implementing planning policies which create a ‘presumption’ against fracking.
Greater Manchester’s Spatial Framework sets out plans for homes, jobs and the environment to support the city region’s 2038 carbon neutral commitment.
A key element of this is to require all new development to be net zero carbon by 2028, as well as new measures for greater energy efficiency and on-site energy generation in new developments well before then.
Meanwhile the investment in building retrofit and renewable energy required to meet Greater Manchester’s ambition could create 55,000 local jobs.
This includes training the city region’s workforce with the skills to make Greater Manchester a global leader in the industry.
Greater Manchester has also produced the first city-region wide plan to drive down avoidable single-use plastics. #PlasticFreeGM asks businesses, organisations and individuals to pledge to take action.
More than 80 tourism and hospitality businesses have already discarded the use of plastic straws for the more sustainable `bee straw’, with nearly half a million sold to date.
