MCFly correspondent Ann Onymous looks at the Low Carbon Hub’s ethnic ‘mix’.

This is the Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub Board. There are 16 members. Notice any common theme about them, other than their burning passion for climate change mitigation and preparing greater Manchester for the climate disasters that are to come? The board has managed to find two people called Steve, but not that many Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) people. Around 1 in 6 people in Greater Manchester (and 1 in 3 people in Manchester) are BME and the Low Carbon Hub board does little to reflect this. One thing that the board recognises is that if we are to mitigate climate change and prepare for its consequences, drastic behavioural changes will be required. Why on earth should the hundreds of thousands of BME people in Manchester listen to what the painfully white LCH has to say about behavioural change, or any other white environmental group in the city?

I will end this post by leaving, without comment, the Low Carbon Hub’s answer to my question ‘How many members of the Low Carbon Hub self-identify as BME/BAME?’

“We do not routinely collect this information.  In 2012, 20% of our wider stakeholders (ie wider than just the Board) were female and 80% male, ethnicity was not mapped. In 2013, the diversity of the stakeholder base had improved slightly with 29% of our wider stakeholder’s female and 71% male, including staff but excluding wider supply chain (SME’s).”