Yes, I know, there were elections. I know because I am a member of Climate Emergency Manchester and we were flat out trying to get candidates to say yea or nay to some simple climate commitments.

Meanwhile, Manchester City Council was running carbon literacy sessions. And not one of the more than-half-of-the-96 Councillors who have not yet started or finished their carbon literacy training could be bothered to show up. These are the Councillors who in July 2019 voted to declare a climate emergency, which included the statement that all 96 would have done their carbon literacy training by the end of 2020.

Oh, and the Council STILL isn’t planning to have a simple online register of which councillors are and are not carbon literate.

Because reasons.

That FOIA in full

Between 1st March 2021 and 21st April 2021
1. How many carbon literacy training sessions took place? How many staff and elected members attended each of them?

14 sessions took place, 123 staff attended with no elected members.

2. Did any sessions get cancelled? If so, why?

2 (Session 1 and session 2) merged the sessions with another planned one to do a bigger session

3. And again, that hardy perennial – “Is it still the case that, despite it being suggested repeatedly, and it being one way to a) save money and b) create trust, there is no plan to have an online register of which councillors have completed their training?

There are still no plans to have an online register, listing which councillors have completed the carbon literacy training.