Salford is one of seven Greater Manchester authorities that have committed to eliminating fossil fuels by 2050, and a new strategy by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) sets out a whole list of ambitious targets on how this is going to happen. These include...
By 2020... "Significant scale up of hybrid, ULEV and Electric vehicle deployment (e.g. 2015:1000, 2020 40,000 registered vehicles)"
By Early 2020s... "No new gas boilers being fitted in domestic properties"
By Mid 2020s... "The retrofit or demolition and replacement of almost all hard to treat and inefficient building stock"
By 2030... "An almost total elimination of gas at home"... "Mass deployment of solar PV on all suitable building stock"... "50% penetration of electric and ULEV vehicles, with the remainder being ultra low emission stock, and no new fossil fuel vehicles being bought"
During 2040s... "Elimination of fossil fuels from peak, standby and general power generation..."... "No remaining fossil fuel vehicles on the road"
No petrol cars...No gas boilers...The mass demolition of `inefficient' houses. Within thirty years Salford and the whole of Greater Manchester could look very different if these targets are met, at a cost of £15billion. They are part of the `Pathway to 2050' contained in the GMCA's Climate Change and Low Emissions Strategies' Implementation Plan (2016-20), which has just been published following a consultation.
In the short term, Greater Manchester is aiming to achieve a 43-45% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. It's about air quality which kills 1,000 people a year in Greater Manchester; climate change which will see more floods and various other nefarious spin-offs, and fuel poverty, with all its social implications.
"The global case for emission reduction is clear and unequivocal" states the introduction to the Plan "The consequences of inaction are an unprecedented breakdown in the natural processes, resources and climate patterns that our current economies, societies, food production and way of life depend on. Similarly, previous reports agreed by the GMCA have highlighted that mature, innovative cities [sic] like Greater Manchester (which have a significant past emissions footprint) have a moral and leadership responsibility to show ambition and commitment if we are to expect other world cities to act."
The Plan comes against a background showing that almost ten per cent of Salford households are in fuel poverty, and that Salford has the joint second worst PM2.5 pollution in England, and the worst in Greater Manchester (see here).
"Our objectives extend beyond achieving a challenging 48% carbon reduction target (by 2020) to preparing the city region to adapt to unavoidable climate change, promoting carbon literacy and transitioning Greater Manchester into a low carbon and low emissions economy with clean air and sustainable lifestyles" states Councillor Sue Derbyshire, who is leading on the GMCA Plan "This can only happen by being at the forefront of innovative action locally and also rely on complimentary actions and investment at the national level."
Priorities to do this by 2020 include investment in low carbon energy generation and efficiency projects, deploying smart systems to enable people to understand their energy usage and to minimise bills; seeking to establish a GM Energy Company (GMEC) with greater control over power sources and fairer tariffs; changing travel behaviour by introducing a `get me there' smart card for tram, bus and trains; reducing emissions from HGVs and passenger vehicles; rail electrification and encouraging people to use Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV); more recycling, clean air zones (see here) and a raft of other initiatives...
"Recognising that there is no single `silver bullet' which will reduce emissions sufficiently; we require a portfolio of action and choices across all aspects of society, each reducing emissions against a business as usual scenario" states GMCA.
Commenting on the latest Plan, Mark Burton from Fossil Free Greater Manchester told the Salford Star...
"The draft GMCA climate change plan is an improvement from the draft on which they consulted in September. It needs to deliver a reduction of 5.15MT (megatonnes) of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It now has more detail and the projected gap between the greenhouse gas reduction target and what planned actions will deliver has narrowed slightly from 1.68MT but is still around 1.48MT. This appears to be in the context of a reduction in national government's contribution to emissions reductions from 2.91 to 1.2MT.
"However, a major problem with the previous plan was its optimism and vagueness and while there is some improvement, the new draft plan, although identifying new actions, gives little more real detail than the original document on what will actually be done and how these actions will lead to the estimated emissions reductions" he explained "Many of the proposed actions seem optimistic but it is difficult to assess them given the lack of detail and a lack of information on time-scales, finance and risks to implementation in what is now a very short time-frame of just four years to make a one third reduction to the city region's greenhouse gas emissions.
"It is worth noting that the ESB/Carrington and Wainstones/Carlton Trafford gas plants will together emit more than 4 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, close to the total savings in the plan" he added "Fossil Free Greater Manchester is campaigning for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund to move its money out of the fossil fuel industry. While this will not have a direct impact on the region's CO2 emissions, it would provide a way to fund some of the needed investment in local energy efficiency and renewable energy that is urgently required if we are to make the rapid and radical transition from burning fossil fuels with their climate consequences."
Meanwhile, the fossil fuel elephant in the Greater Manchester room is fracking, being pushed by the national government with new licenses being granted all over Greater Manchester. The GMCA plan doesn't mention fracking once or opposition to the unconventional gas extraction, despite its commitment to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2050 – and to remove gas boilers in homes...
* See also previous Salford Star article: Fracking and Climate Change take centre stage in GM Mayor Race - click here
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