Agenda and minutes

The Chair opened the meeting, welcomed all those present and introductions took place around the table.

Apologies for absence were received from Megan Black, Eamonn Boylan, Stuart Easterbrook, Chris Matthews, Simon Nokes, Chris Oglesby, Kristina Poole, Lee Rawlinson and Simon Warburton.

The Chair made the following announcements:

·         The Chair asked that Councillor Oliver Ryan, the Chair’s Deputy be invited to future meetings.

·         Chris Oglesby from Bruntwood had agreed to join the Partnership to represent the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Chris Oglesby had submitted his apologies for the meeting but would be represented by his Substitute Jessica Bowles on this occasion.

·         Nalin Thakker from the University of Manchester was welcomed to his first Partnership meeting.

·         Another Greater Manchester Green Summit would be held in the run up to COP26 (United Nations (UN) Climate Change Summit in Glasgow in November 2020). A date and venue for the Summit was to be determined. However, the Summit would be designed with the support of the Youth Combined Authority to ensure a high youth focus.

·         The Board agreed that Sarah Price from the Health & Social Care Partnership (H&SCP) be invited to join the Partnership.

·         A representative from Homes England was required to join the Board. Suggestions of suitable Officers should be sent to the Assistant Director of Environment, GMCA.

·         The Chair suggested and the Board agreed that Item 6 (Thematic Deep Dive – Energy) be moved to Item 4.

To receive declarations of interest in any item for discussion at the meeting. A blank form for declaring interests has been circulated with the agenda; please ensure that this is returned to the Governance & Scrutiny Officer at the start of the meeting.

There were no declarations received in relation to any item on the agenda.

a)         MATTERS ARISING

·         Arising from minute GMGCRP/04/19 (Minutes), it was explained that the first of the thematic deep dives on energy innovation would take place at today’s meeting. The Chair asked the Challenge Group Chairs to nominate a theme and/or item for the next meeting.

·          Arising from minute GMGCRP/05/19 (Implementing the 5 Year Environment Plan (YEP)), it was noted that a report on modern methods of construction would be brought to the meeting on 20 March 2020.

·         Arising from minute GMGCRP/06/19F (5 YEP Forum), the Waste & Recycling Committee Representative from Bury Council informed the Partnership that their Urban Tree Challenge had been successful and 57 mature trees were on their way.

·         Arising from minute GMGCRP/08/19 (Local Energy Market Bid), it was announced that the bid for £6m, funding for local energy market, presented at the last meeting, was successful. The project was due to commence in February 2020. A report on this would be considered by the GMCA on 31 January 2020.

As agreed by the Partnership, the agenda was reorganised to take this item at this point in the meeting.

This was the first of the thematic deep dives requested at the last meeting, on the energy innovation theme.

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a)            ENERGY SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The Partnership received a presentation that gave an overview of the energy systems, opportunities, constraints and baseline planning.

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b)            GMCA LEAD ENERGY PROGRAMMES

The Partnership considered a report and presentation that provided the inter-relationships between current GMCA low carbon projects across the spectrum of information, projects and optimisation.

A detailed discussion took place, which was noted as follows:

·         A Member asked what BPS was; this stood for bump supply point.

·         The presenters were asked if consideration had been given to leasing rather than capex. A question was also raised about the status of the national policy. It was explained that financing was a separate issue, there were a number of businesses and third parties that would provide the capital. There was a role to develop the market. In terms of the national policy, it was noted that this would be dependent on what funding was available following the March 2020 budget.

·         Domestic solar panels took a long time to pay back but did provide a return on investment. The challenge for the group was to revisit numbers to assess whether bulk purchase could drive lower costs.

·         It was agreed that the presentation slide decks would be shared with the Partnership.

·         A question was raised about Local Authority (LA) data on energy demand and generation and how detailed the data was. Data for the ENWL calculations had been shared with and taken from the draft GM spatial plan. The link to the interactive maps would be shared with the Partnership.

·         School routes could provide a third of the generation required. Work was underway with Greater Manchester Community Renewables and others to assess the opportunities. School governors would need to be convinced and the work being undertaken was about providing the opportunity and options for schools.

·         Electric vehicle (EV) fast charging used 24 times the amount of power than a normal regular overnight charge. Fast charging was not the most cost effective way of charging. An education programme was needed about the low cost overnight charging option.

·         A discussion took place about the potential uptake of heat pumps. It was explained that 20% of heat to electricity had been modelled but, as technology improved, this would increase.

·           The Wild Life Trust had a 25 acre site in Wigan that had potential for a solar farm and partner. Electricity North West agreed to be discuss with LWT.

·         A point was raised about the Dissemination of Energy Efficiency Measures in the Public Buildings Sector (DEEP) project and if the wider benefits were being considered. It was suggested that data could be collected. Unfortunately, this was not possible as the project was focussed on carbon only.

·         Work on-going on this area included the Schools Low Carbon Programme,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Report and presentation of Mark Atherton, Assistant Director of Environment, GMCA

The Partnership considered a report that provided the usual update on progress of the Low Carbon Hub for the second quarter of 2019/20.

It was noted that Greater Manchester had been rated `Grade A – Leader City’ from the independent Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) review in 2019. Greater Manchester was one of less than 40 global cities to receive this grade. Councillor Derek Antrobus would be representing the Partnership on a panel at the annual CDP report launch event in January 2020.

An enquiry was made about EU funding and what would happen after Brexit. The Ignition and Natural Course were long term projects therefore funding was guaranteed. Government discussions about the UK Shared Prosperity Fund were taking place.

RESOLVED/-

That the Partnership noted the progress outlined in the report and the latest position set out in the dashboards attached at Annex 1 (Environment Team Performance Overview) and Annex 2 (5 YEP Performance) of the report.

Consideration was given to a report and presentation that outlined the progress made by the 5 YEP Challenge Groups in developing their key priorities and subsequent Task and Finish Action Groups.

It was reported that the 5 YEP Challenge Groups had all met at least twice and had established key priority areas to be addressed by Task and Finish Action Groups. Their progress was being supported and monitored under the Mission Based Approach set out in the 5 YEP and Local Industrial Strategy.

RESOLVED/-

That the Partnership notes the progress in developing the Challenge Groups and the Task and Finish Action Groups.

The Partnership received a report that provided an update on progress with developing the transport elements of the 5 YEP, including an update on the development of Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Plan (Annex 1 of the report) and the transport-related actions that Greater Manchester needed to take and influence to meet its ambition to be a carbon neutral city-region by 2038.  The report identified that it was not the intention establish a specific challenge group on Transport, but rather work with the extensive network of forums and partnerships across Greater Manchester already in existence (Annex 2 of the report).

The following comments and questions were noted:

·         The Chair was working with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) around the 5 YEP to pull together a lobbying and communications strategy.

·         An Officer asked if climate injustice had been considered as part of the strategy. It was confirmed that the 2040 strategy looked at this, more investment was required in walking and cycling. The Clean Air Plan work analysed socioeconomic groups and there was huge potential to support these groups.

·         Analysis looked at land usage and transport to ensure land use and housing was linked in a coherent way.

·         It was noted that Network Rail was not part of the conversations.

·         Land being released for housing and its proximity to transport was raised as part of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF). It was suggested that there would be significant challenge from objectors and developers. It was advised that a strong evidence base would be critical and a public narrative was needed

RESOLVED/-

The Partnership noted the progress in development the transport elements of the 5 YEP.

Consideration was given to a report that outlined the progress made in developing a Natural Capital Investment Readiness Fund.

RESOLVED/-

That the Partnership noted the progress in developing the Natural Capital Investment Readiness Fund proposal.

a)            GREEN SUMMIT AND COP

Officers were asked to contact the Central Government representative if they wanted to make any links.

b)         GREEN GREAT BRITAIN WEEK

Green GB & NI Week would take place in February 2020, in conjunction with Government's Year of Green Action (YoGA). This was a week of events and activity where Government, businesses, academia and the public would come together to explore how clean growth would change our futures and how we could contribute to action on climate change. This year would see a youth influence.

c)         WILDLIFE TRUST

The Wildlife Trust had submitted a £1m bid to help people with mental health problems through eco therapies.

The next meetings would be held at 10.00 am, Boardroom, GMCA on:

Friday 20 March 2020

Friday 24 July 2020

That the next meeting was scheduled to take place on Friday 20 March 2020 at 10.00am in the Board Room, GMCA.