Michaux Danzoll wrote a policy article to bring light to the Manchester Climate Plan in line with the Global Call for Climate Action.
In November 2025, nearly 8,000 kilometres apart, two significant events in the fight against climate change took place. In Belém, Brazil, on the edge of the Amazon forest, delegates gathered for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Representatives agreed to create a just transition framework centred on human rights and equality in the shift away from fossil fuels and deforestation, without specifying any funding or national policy commitments. As part of the outcomes, the COP30 Chair launched the Global Mutirão, a call for a collective mobilisation that extends beyond national governments to civil society, businesses, and local governments. “The Global Mutirão recognises that while climate change is a global challenge, the most powerful solutions often begin locally.”
That same month, at the People’s History Museum, Manchester Climate Ready (MCR) launched its 2025-30 Plan. The Plan sets out how businesses, Manchester City Council, local communities, and the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors can work together to address the causes and impacts of climate change. While much of MCR’s Plan is focused on public and private sector investments and regulation, the VCSE sector has a central role to play in informing policymaking, ensuring that the voices of marginalised communities are heard, and promoting local projects that meet local needs.
As we enter the 4th update of the Manchester Climate Plan, it is important for the VCSE sector to understand the reality of the city’s existing climate action. With the spirit of the Global Mutirão in mind, Manchester Community Central has broken down the Manchester Climate Plan 2025-2030, highlighting the themes, objectives, and responsibilities of the VCSE sector.
Where Manchester Stands on Climate Action
The Plan emphasises that with current levels of policies and investment, Manchester is not on track to meet its 2038 zero-carbon target and is expected to exceed its remaining carbon budget by the end of this year. If no changes are made, emissions will be reduced by only 55% by 2038. Decarbonising construction, transport, and energy systems is identified as essential, with an estimated transition cost of £22 billion. Alongside reducing the greenhouse gas emissions emitted within Manchester, indirect emissions (those created outside of the city-region by services or products consumed in Manchester) must be halved by 2030. The MCR Plan sits alongside other strategies guiding the work of Manchester City Council, including the recently released Our Manchester Strategy 2025-2035.
Climate Action and Its Wider Benefits
While the Plan details technical targets, including grid decarbonisation, home retrofitting (including social housing), low-carbon heat installations, and net-zero developments, it also details the range of positive social and economic impacts of climate action, such as those listed below:
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Improved public health and reduced health inequalities
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Warmer homes
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Affordable and healthy food
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Increased access to nature
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Community cohesion through involvement in projects to improve neighbourhoods
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Economic prosperity and well-paid jobs through investment in green industries and technologies.
Achieving these co-benefits depend on continuing the existing work and involvement of the VCSE sector.
Centring People in the Plan
The Plan places communities at the heart of this transition, recognising grassroots projects as key drivers of healthier, more connected neighbourhoods. VCSEs bring together the knowledge, trust, and communities to create programmes that address real issues across Manchester. These include promoting access to greenspace to improve mental and physical health, facilitating education and campaigning, and amplifying the voices of residents. While not explicit, things like urban greening and gardening create spaces for people to come together, which addresses climate change and enhances community cohesion and support.
Ensuring a just transition that moves away from fossil fuel energy while building social justice is a crosscutting objective throughout the Plan. This requires acknowledging that underrepresented and marginalised communities, who are the least responsible for the climate crisis, will be the ones most impacted. VCSEs are critical to bringing community voices to decision-making spaces through partnering with local authorities and businesses in discussions preparing for the risks posed by extreme weather events to vulnerable members of their communities. It also means identifying Manchester residents who may be excluded from finding well-paid green jobs, access to nature, or improved transport routes.
Building a Green Equitable Economy
MCR celebrates the potential growth of the green economy, with the Plan emphasising the importance of accessible, well-paid green careers. Social enterprises have the expertise and capability to help shape the positive social and economic impacts. Many social businesses run by community members are committed to not only gaining income but also reinvesting those profits into local needs and skill building. This is essential to make sure that the green economy does not recreate existing inequalities in Manchester.
Enhancing the Natural Environment
Another element of the Plan is improving Manchester’s natural environment to address issues such as air pollution while preparing the city for the impacts of heatwaves, flooding, and extreme weather. Regenerating parks, gardens, canals, and other natural spaces delivers multiple social and environmental benefits. The VCSE sector already plays a major role in connecting communities to the natural environment through education, urban greening and gardening projects, and promoting the benefits of green social prescribing. Local groups have successfully highlighted air pollution’s negative impacts and taken action to raise awareness. VCSEs will play a fundamental role in achieving the Plan’s objective of enhancing Manchester’s natural environment through initiatives supporting wildlife, creating urban greenspaces, increasing access to nature, and addressing physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Transport contributes significantly to Manchester’s carbon emissions, and MCR highlights the need for both increased use of public transport and biking/walking infrastructure to reduce the city’s carbon footprint. Increasing access to public and active transport routes requires continued advocacy by VCSEs to ensure that vulnerable groups are included in decision-making and planning processes. Community groups also play a role in using their relationships with residents to change behaviour and overcome barriers to promote active travel or the use of public transport.
Private energy companies and the National Government control the sources of energy used in the electrical grid; however, the Plan identifies community-owned renewable energy projects as an opportunity for VCSEs to localise and green electricity production. Local groups in Manchester have committed to empowering communities to create small-scale renewable energy projects that reduce electricity costs and generate income to reinvest in priorities specific to local needs.
Finally, Manchester’s indirect emissions are more than twice the amount emitted within the city, meaning shifting to local supply chains that reduce and reuse materials will be essential to create a net-zero city by 2038. VCSEs will play a major role in supporting people in reusing and repairing items. The social economy also has an important part to play in supporting local supply chains that build wealth in communities.
Adaptation: Building Local Resilience
Climate change will create and intensify the risks faced by Manchester’s communities, including flooding, extreme heat, water scarcity, and more frequent extreme weather events. The greatest impacts of these risks are felt by groups already experiencing social and economic inequalities. The MCR Plan recognises the need to adapt to these risks using nature to build local resilience by reducing the chances of flooding, cooling neighbourhoods, improving air quality, and supporting physical and mental wellbeing. VCSE organisations are already involved in this work, promoting public awareness of climate risks, providing education opportunities, and working with communities in high-risk areas to reflect lived experience and local knowledge. As trusted intermediaries, VCSEs will also play a vital function in coordinating cross-sector collaboration between residents, local authorities, and the healthcare sector to ensure adaptation efforts are inclusive and effective.
Ultimately, VCSEs will be central to building the “connection, neighbourhood and hope” needed to support Manchester becoming a net-zero city by 2038. The spirit of the Global Mutirão put forward at COP30, connecting all elements of society to address climate change, is reflected in the MCR Plan and will require the constant efforts and investment into the VCSE sector and the communities it represents to create a greener, sustainable and equitable future for Manchester.