Partners across the city-region have signed a multi-million pound European contract for a project which looks to develop innovative ways of financing natural solutions to deliver resilience to increasingly extreme climate hazards.
IGNITION will run for up to the next three years backed by £4 million from the EU’s Urban Innovation Actions initiative, in a significant announcement made a week after the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s second annual Green Summit.
The project, the first of its kind, will see Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), supported by 11 other key partners, including the Environment Agency, come together to develop the new innovative financing and delivery mechanisms that cities and urban areas need to respond to the risks posed by increasingly rapidly changing climate.
Partners will identify sites within Greater Manchester where natural capital climate adaptation projects can manage urban flood and overheating risks.
These smaller individual schemes will then be brought together into larger investible packages of projects at around the £10 million scale, ensuring they are attractive to private investors. Through the development of financing mechanisms and building investor confidence, the IGNITION project will ensure city-regions like Greater Manchester can deliver adaptations to urban green spaces needed to combat climate change and extreme weather risks over the coming decades.
For further information visit: https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-cities/greater-manchester
