In July 2014 a “three year plan” for Manchester City Council”s climate goals will be agreed at Scrutiny and then signed off by the Executive. Going on the quality of both the plans and the “actions” in the various Annual Carbon “Reduction” Plans since 2010, this three year plan is likely to be both unambitious and then unimplemented.
Currently there is a low-level of awareness/concern both within and beyond the Council over the obligations and opportunities around the climate change.
There is little sense among Manchester activists of what they can do to lower Manchester’s emissions and help make the city more resourceful and responsive, with actions focussing on worthy personal actions such as going vegetarian or (re)cycling.
So, what is to be done? Well, we here at MCFly think that people who give a damn – whether they are Labour, Green, Lib Dem or “a plague on all your houses” – need to get together to create a Real Climate Plan that we can then give to the Council by the end of April 2014.
The Council can then draw upon that document to make a robust and radical 3 year plan that gives them a real chance of hitting their targets, not just for carbon reduction, but also culture change.
The three alternatives – to keep on staging emotathons (see page 5 of the latest MCFly) and feel-good smuggery, to do small-scale stuff that is good on its own but not fit for the scale of the problems, or endlessly critiquing without proposing – is not going to help us all pass the “mirror test”* ten years hence.
This is a big job, and it will needs hands on deck. If you want to be involved, at any level, please get in touch. mcmonthly@gmail.com
* That’s the one where you wake up in the morning and can look yourself in the eye as someone who has been a responsible citizen.
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In 2012 Manchester City Council aimed for a 10% reduction in its own emissions . In July 2013 it claimed a 7% reduction. It was able to do this because responsibility for traffic lights moved from its books. Looking at everything else (buildings, transport) emissions went … UP by 1.8%.
So, building on that extremely strong base, the Council’s bureaucrats have proposed a series of actions to help them hit a new “7%” target. You can see the complete list here.
Manchester Climate Monthly is going to take a closer look at each and every one of these 44 “actions.” Twice a week, on “Annual Plan Tuesdays” and “Annual Plan Thursdays” we will be asking a few straightforward questions about each item. To illustrate each post, are devising “Top Trump” cards for all of these actions. At two per week it will take you until December or so to collect the whole set…
And throughout all of this, we are asking YOU, the reader, and council tax payer (probably), what YOU think the Council should REALLY be doing… Because next year the council moves to a “three year plan.” And given what we already know of the low quality of the carbon plans and their implementation so far, we, the citizens, will be complicit if we remain silent…
manchester climate monthly 