Manchester climate risk: a framework for understanding hazards and vulnerability

This document establishes an evidence base for a more detailed climate change risk assessment for Manchester. It identifies weather-related hazards in the city and projects how climate change will affect these hazards. It also establishes a framework to support the comprehensive assessment of the city’s vulnerabilities to climate change and to evaluate our capacity – or lack thereof – to respond to these threats.

The Manchester Climate Change Framework 2020-25 outlines the city’s plan to ensure Manchester is a thriving, zero-carbon, climate-resilient city. The framework is partly about ensuring Manchester plays its full part in mitigating climate change - keeping global heating to below 2°C. But whilst mitigation is vital, adaptation to climate change is increasingly urgent. Understanding climate change hazards is just some dimension of the city's climate risk. Exposure and vulnerability to climate risk must also be considered, as well as the capacity to respond to hazards.