Our Zero Carbon Future

Gavin Elliott, architect and chair of Manchester studio shares his insight as he steps down as Chair of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership after six years

As a teenager I used to love thumbing through my father’s copy of the Whole Earth Catalog that he’d brought back from the USA on one of his visits to scientific conferences. At university I was in thrall to the thinking of Buckminster Fuller. As a novice architect during my early years at BDP, working under the guidance of former Chair Tony McGuirk who was steeped in the work of Scandinavian architects, and Ralph Erskine in particular, it was clear to me that while architects have incredible power to shape the man-made environment, they also have a duty of care towards the natural world, in all its facets. I have never been a campaigner, activist, or even a designer who prioritised sustainability above business pragmatism. So no one was more surprised than me when, back in 2013, following the death of my father, I was elected Chair of Manchester: A Certain Future, the city’s stakeholder forum for action on climate change. I write this piece as the outgoing Chair of the newly rebranded Manchester Climate Change Partnership; infinitely better informed and keen to share what I have learned in the previous six years.

10 Lessons from Manchester

01 BELIEVE IN THE SCIENCE

Scientists are the good guys! They are seekers after truth. When internationally renowned climate scientists, such as Kevin Anderson at the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Centre speak, you should listen. MCCP has worked closely with the Tyndall Centre to calculate a set of local targets from the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement which align city-level action with limiting global warming to 1.5ºC. Under the Tyndall Centre’s guidance we have set a carbon budget for Manchester, i.e. the total amount of carbon the city can/should emit for the foreseeable future, in order to stay within the temperature limits set in the Paris Agreement. Put simply, if we fail to meet these emission targets we will not be able to restrict the rise in global temperatures within the parameters set at COP21 – with catastrophic results.

02 CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING

It is easy (albeit not rational) to dismiss climate scientists as apocalyptic doom-mongers. However, all evidence shows otherwise. Climate change is happening as a result of manmade greenhouse gas emissions; eight of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last decade, sea levels are rising and extreme weather events around the world are increasing - all predicted by the scientists. In every corner of the globe, from Athens to the Arctic Circle, the planet has literally been on fire in the last 12 months, including the moorland surrounding Manchester in February 2019.

03 THE ACTIVISTS ARE RIGHT

It is equally easy to dismiss the activist community as people who are naturally anti-establishment, who have other motives for wanting to disrupt business and have adopted climate change as a convenient cause with which to fight a proxy war against neo-liberalism. This may indeed be true of a minority, but fundamentally, the narrative of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion et al – is perfectly aligned with the science. This is a climate emergency. Their advocacy and disruption is necessary to bring the scientific truths to the mainstream and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude for doing so.

04 POLITICIANS ARE HUGELY CONFLICTED BUT WE NEED THEM

Having dipped my toe into murky waters of politics as Chair of MCCP, I can honestly say I do not envy politicians their jobs! Balancing the conflicting issues competing for their attention and arriving at policy proposals that are forward-looking and equitable across a vast spectrum of social and environmental problems is incredibly difficult...and that’s without the distorting prism of party political ideology and added pressures of democratic accountability Without national and regional policy devising legislation and directing resources, it is difficult to see how the problem of climate change can be solved, yet for many politicians, it is just another issue competing with so many others on their lengthy agenda. Furthermore, when they do speak or act, what we hear or see is mediated by our own political prejudices and willingness to listen, our own knowledge and ability to see through their rhetoric and, where appropriate, our preparedness to hold them to account and demand they do better.

05 THE SCALE OF THE CHALLENGE IS UNPRECEDENTED

Manchester has committed to be zero carbon by 2038, 12 years in advance of the National Target of 2050, so to accelerate our rate of progress we must: • Limit the amount of carbon we emit during 2018-2100 to 15 million tonnes; given we currently emit 2m tonnes every year that means we’re on track to ‘spend’ all of our budget by 2025. • Reduce our CO2 emissions by at least 13% every year, or 50% over the next five years. In 2018 we managed a 5% reduction, a step in the right direction but still way off the pace. • Shift to 100% renewable energy from a combination of a locally produced energy and a fully decarbonised National Grid. Today only 1% of Manchester’s electricity comes from locally generated renewable sources. • Retrofit our 210,000 homes to significantly improve their energy efficiency and generate on-site renewable energy. That’s an average of 30 homes every single day for the next 19 years.

06 THE CLOCK IS TICKING

Whilst Manchester has committed to being zero carbon by 2038 the pathway to achieve this requires an 83% reduction in its emissions over the next decade, with its emissions reduction profile flattening out thereafter. This equates to a 13.5% reduction in its emissions year on year, for the next ten years. And for every year we don’t meet that target, the percentage goes up. So the narrative of the climate emergency and the urgency to act now is not a fantasy of the activist community. It is scientific fact.

07 PARTNERSHIPS MATTER

The Manchester Climate Change Partnership is exactly that; a partnership between the public sector, the private sector and the community, who have come together voluntarily because they recognise that the issue of climate change is too great for any one party to solve. Top-down policy making from central, regional or local government is a key component to help create incentives, level playing fields for action and unblock barriers that organisations and individuals need. But without support from major civic institutions, the private sector and the community it will not succeed. Creating a decarbonised future will affect everyone and requires our full participation and consent.

08 WHAT WE DO AS A BUSINESS MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Buildings, transportation and energy generation are all massive contributors to a city’s emissions profile. From the planning of national and regional transportation networks, to masterplanning cities and neighbourhoods, through to the design of individual buildings and the development of architectural design and engineering solutions, as designers of the built environment, our projects have the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. As a business of considerable scale, our collective behaviour offers the potential to show real leadership in the corporate world, while simultaneously (and beneficially) reducing our own carbon footprint.

09 INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS COUNT

Although the scale of the global challenge is huge, individual actions can have an immediate impact in reducing our own personal carbon footprint. Examples of simple actions are captured on the Manchester Climate website and include improving your education regarding climate change and measuring your own CO2, eating less meat, leaving your car at home, flying less, buying less, reusing, and recycling, using renewable energy whenever possible, reducing energy consumption at home, cultivating green spaces and minimising personal water consumption.

10 ACTION IS LIBERATING

It’s easy to become pessimistic about the future but that isn’t an excuse to bury our heads in the sand and do nothing. On the contrary, it is a reason to act, and to act now. Throughout all facets of our lives, we have the opportunity to inspire our families and communities, and within our projects and professional lives. Become an influencer, an advocate within your community, voice an opinion, as Greta Thunberg has shown, opinions matter. As thinking around climate change moves from being the preserve of the scientist and activist and into the mainstream, as urbanists, architects, engineers, designers, and creative problem solvers this is our chance to rise to the challenge of shaping the new low carbon world of the future.