Following his election, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, announced his ambitions for making Greater Manchester one of the leading green cities in Europe.
To help realise these ambitions, he called for a landmark Green Summit, which was held on 21 March 2018. The event brought together environmental experts, interest groups, partner agencies, academics and local people together to accelerate Greater Manchester’s green ambitions. It was also used to launch the Plastic-Free Greater Manchester Campaign.
A follow-up Green Summit 2019 event is planned for 25 March, 2019 to define a five-year plan to put us on the path for carbon neutrality.
Greater Manchester has launched the first city-region wide plan to drive down avoidable single-use plastics!
#PlasticFreeGM asks businesses, organisations and individuals to pledge to take action to reduce avoidable single use plastics across Greater Manchester. #PlasticFreeGM works with campaigning partners to provide information and advice to guide more sustainable choices.
A number of sector specific campaigns are taking off to offer relevant support and information on reducing single use plastics.
Natural capital is the stock of “environmental assets” - the elements of the natural world such as land, forests, water, soil, air, minerals and oceans that provide benefits to people. Natural capital identifies and places a financial value upon these assets. Greater Manchester is the first city-region in the UK to develop a Natural Capital Investment Plan designed to encourage investments in natural capital that deliver financial as well as social returns.
Waste and Resources are responsible for the management and disposal of municipal waste from Greater Manchester. This was formerly known as Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.
Greater Manchester is developing a Clean Air Plan to tackle harmful and illegally high levels of roadside air pollution across the city-region.
500 homes across Greater Manchester will get a new central heating system fitted for free* thanks to the Warm Homes Fund.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has secured £1.8 million from this national fund which has been established by National Grid and is administered by Affordable Warmth Solutions. It will offer a helping hand to households struggling to afford to stay warm and those who are vulnerable to the cold that do not currently have a central heating system.
The scheme is running throughout 2018-19 but is operating on a first-come, first-served basis and will close to new applications once all the funds have been allocated.
Greater Manchester’s Plan for Homes, Jobs, and the Environment (the spatial framework) has been put together by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which comprises the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the leaders of Greater Manchester's ten local councils.
This plan is about providing the right homes, in the right places, for people across our city region. It’s about creating jobs and improving infrastructure to ensure the future prosperity of Greater Manchester.
The plan talks about jobs and homes, but it’s about so much more than bricks and mortar. It's about reducing inequalities, improving the lives of our residents, and transforming Greater Manchester into the world-leading city-region we know it can be.
Greater Manchester’s green ambitions are centred around the work of our Low Carbon Hub – a network of public, private, voluntary and academic organisations working together to make Greater Manchester one of the greenest city regions in the world.
Find out more about Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub and how businesses, universities and the public sector are working together on carbon reduction and low carbon growth at:
Environment