Manchester has signed up to one of the most ambitious climate change targets in the world as the city seeks to become ‘zero carbon’ in just 20 years.
In a ground-breaking pledge, the town hall now aims to ensure all energy used in Manchester is green by 2038 – a far more challenging target than other British cities and most across the globe.
It would effectively mean that all transport and fuel in the city would be renewable by that point, including through widespread electrification of cars and public transport.
Homes and business would need to switch to clean energy, buildings will have to be retrofitted to improve their insulation and more green space created.
The pledge does not include emissions from flights at Manchester Airport, which would need to be covered by separate national agreements, it is understood.
But the plan has been welcomed by climate change activists across the country, with the council pointing out that achieving the goal would benefit the poorer and older people the most – those more likely to be living in fuel poverty in badly insulated houses or those at risk of flooding.
In recent years the stark effects of climate change have risen up the agenda both domestically and internationally, with flooding and moorland fires in Greater Manchester linked by experts to global warming and the more extreme weather events associated with it.
Manchester’s pledge, while yet to be outlined in detail, is now aimed at ensuring the city plays its part in the Paris climate change accord aimed at radically slowing down global warming.
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