Green cities: using city deals to drive low carbon growth
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Low carbon analysis “The main thing the city deal has given Manchester’s deal sets out its “distinctive offer” us is the opportunity to have a stronger on low carbon.31 This includes existing strengths and longer term relationship with in the low carbon environmental goods and government. We could have put the low services sector; key projects underway; research carbon hub in place in isolation, but it strength; the geographic scale needed to pilot would have lacked interaction with low carbon programmes; 1.1 million homes national policy and delivery.” offering a significant opportunity for retrofit; ambitions to host an increased proportion of Manchester representative heat generation by 2020; the Greater Manchester environment commission; and strong Manchester has an ambitious and detailed partnerships with the private sector. climate change strategy, but missed the opportunity to frame its city deal’s pursuit of The deal enables delivery, with the creation of a growth with its stated vision of pioneering a 50/50 joint venture between Greater Manchester “new model for sustainable economic growth and UK Green Investments to develop a portfolio based around a more connected, talented and of investment opportunities for the Green greener city region” by 2020.32 The two will Investment Bank. need to be integrated if the climate change strategy’s aims are to be met. Manchester will also be working with DECC via the city deals process to ‘go early’ on the Green Deal The city’s local transport plan aims to maximise and to explore the feasibility of district heating. the potential for economic growth while creating lower carbon travel patterns. In the However, the main opportunity afforded by longer term there are plans to set targets for the city deal was the opportunity to link efforts reducing transport emissions via a modal shift, to achieve Manchester’s ambitious emissions fuel efficiency and new infrastructure. The city reduction target with national policy and delivery, deal does not obviously conflict with this, but via a relationship with government. Its low clearer links between the two sets of ambitions carbon hub will access more strategic support will need to be made in the delivery phase. and jointly devise a low carbon and adaptation implementation plan for reducing emissions. Manchester’s work to ‘go early’ on the Green Deal via the city deal process will be useful in Although progressing low carbon ambitions is helping meet the aim to become a centre of the clearly an important part of Manchester’s deal, building retrofitting industry. This also links to it is not included up front in the overviews of skills ambitions, which see the Green Deal as an economy and strategy. But it has a strong, low opportunity to help address worklessness. The carbon focus and is probably clearest among climate change strategy acknowledges that the the cities in the intention to build a strategic city’s workforce will need to change to take relationship with government. Manchester also advantage of low carbon opportunities and will makes links between low carbon and other be supporting programmes that develop ‘green sections of the deal. The investment framework collar’ skills and a green apprenticeship section mentions a pipeline of 70-80 projects programme. By 2020 it is hoped this will have ready for investment and notes that this includes led to a “marked shift” in the level of green low carbon projects. The deal’s transport section collar skills in the city and a mainstreaming of features the carbon reduction and employment low carbon opportunities.33 If these goals are to benefits of the local sustainable transport fund be achieved, green skills will need to be a central submission, which include an estimated 900 strand in the wider reorganisation of skills additional jobs by 2015. Other transport aims enabled by the city deal. focus on buses and trains, although they are not specified as being low carbon.