What’s the role of city regions in reaching net zero: an interview with Andy Burnham

The Green Alliance Podcast

Green Alliance

Environment, Uk, Farming, Green Alliance, News, Sustainability, Society & Culture, Government

4.9 • 34 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What are the benefits of net zero for city regions like Greater Manchester? What are the solutions to the energy crisis? And how should Labour approach the climate and nature crisis? These are just some of the questions we put to Greater Manchester’s metro mayor Andy Burnham.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We are the charity and think tank that is all about
0:07.6	achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. I'm Robbie McPherson, political advisor at Green
0:13.5	Alliance. The UK set a target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but this isn't something
0:20.1	that the UK government can achieve alone.
0:22.6	Local government is an essential partner in delivering a decarbonised economy.
0:27.6	Fortunately, local leaders around the country, from district councillors to Metro mayors, are leading the way in the race to net zero.
0:35.6	The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, for example, has a
0:39.3	net zero target of 2038. In this episode, I spoke to Andy Burnham, former Labour MP and
0:45.8	cabinet minister, who since 2017 has served as the mayor of Greater Manchester.
0:51.0	Change is hard for people to take on board, but particularly in a world post-pandemic where everyone's kind of been through really tough times.
0:58.8	The change is only fair if you properly support people to make that change.
1:04.2	Beyond Greater Manchester's Net Zero ambition, we discuss the energy crisis, the cost of living and labour's offer on climate and environmental issues at the next election.
1:14.8	Well, I'm absolutely delighted to be joined today by Andy Burnham, former Labour MP and currently the Greater Manchester Mayor,
1:22.3	who is here to talk all things climate action in the north-west of England, particularly around Greater Manchester. So the first
1:28.4	question sort of to kick off then, Andy, is why is it important that Greater Manchester gets to
1:32.7	net zero by 2038? Because it will get us the things that the city region will need to set us up for
1:39.2	the future, better housing, better jobs, crucially better public transport, which is something that we need. So I've
1:46.3	always seen the path to net zero has been a way of achieving the things that I think the city
1:54.2	region is crying out for. It's a way of accelerating that change. Also, it's an opportunity to lower
2:00.3	the cost of living for people. If we can
2:02.1	bring down the cost of public transport, if we can retrofit people's homes so that their energy
2:07.0	bills are lower, it's a way of tackling inequality. It's why I always will talk about, you know,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Green Alliance, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Green Alliance and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.