Wednesday’s work: MCFly distribution monkey sought

Posted on May 2, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Every Wednesday afternoon (1) we’re going to post either a role that needs taking on, or a specific task (or one of each, if we are feeling particularly sisypheanly behind in a given week.)

These are roles and tasks that, if done well, will lead to people in Manchester being better informed, better inspired and/or better connected. If you’re interested in taking on the role, then get in touch via our email; mcmonthly [at] gmail.com

And this week’s role
Role: Distribution manager (paper). Find places willing to stock MCFly and arrange for delivery to these places.
Reason: Giving copies of MCFly out at meetings is neither efficient or effective (almost by definition, it’s in the “eco-ghetto”)
Pay: £0.00 per hour
Number of meetings per month: between 0 and 1, depending
What you’ll need to put in: Time, energy, charm
What you’ll get out: Experience. Undying gratitude.
Minimum commitment: 3 months
Rough estimate of hours per week: 3 per week initially, tailing off…

Don’t all apply at once, you’ll melt our server…

(1) Over “the hump” if you’re a Monday-to-Friday wage slave…

Posted in volunteer opportunity | 2 Comments

Pre-election survey: Candidates ambivalent about the Airport

Posted on May 2, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Manchester Friends of the Earth has conducted a survey about the environmental positions of candidates standing in the May 3rd local authority elections.

You can read the results here –
http://www.scribd.com/doc/91350632/2012-Local-Election-Report-MFoE

One thing that leaps out on an initial skim read is just how ambivalent the candidates who answered the survey are about the plans to double passenger numbers at Manchester Airport. Only 30% of the Conservative candidates who answered the survey support it, with 28% of the Labour candidates supporting. For the Lib Dems it was 0% and for the Greens 3% (which we think means one – possibly confused – person).

Is the survey totally comprehensive? No. But bear in mind that Manchester FoE has no paid staff. The survey was conducted by volunteers. MCFly, if it’s still going when the next Council Elections come round (June 2014), hereby promises to help out.

Disclaimer: MCFly co-editor Marc Hudson is a paid-up member of Friends of the Earth.

Posted in Democratic deficit, hustings, Manchester Airport, Manchester City Council | Tagged | Leave a comment

Salford Uni & Envirolink Team Up To Offer Green Training

Posted on May 1, 2012 by arwafreelance
The University of Salford and Envirolink are joining forces to offer energy and built environment training
An ‘Energy Professional Development Academy’ has been set up by Salford University and low carbon business support company Envirolink to help companies cut their energy costs and carbon emissions.
The courses and workshops are part an effort to upskill the industry and adapt to the fast growing and changing market demands.
According to the commercial manager of the project Dave Hall, this collaboration has been brewing for the last six months. There are various private training services offered across the UK at the moment, but Hall insists that the Energy Professional Development Academy offers something unique.
“Both Envirolink and the University are looking to utilise their shared knowledge and expertise in this sector to provide high quality training along with capitalising on a number of unique facilities such as the Energy House [a full-size reconstructed house built inside a climate controlled lab] here at the university. The benefits of which can be demonstrated by our first training course on Infrared Thermography.”
Hall also added that providing professional training at a time of economic downturn is particularly important. “Professional training is an essential for businesses but is often something that is scaled back on by organisations during challenging economic times. Many organisations see training as an additional cost so we need to make sure that our training delivers significant value and that companies can see a direct benefit to their competitiveness and bottom line.”
The courses and workshops are aimed at individuals and professional working within the housing, energy and construction sector. It also aims to look at the full supply chain- from suppliers to end users. The first course, as mentioned above, will be focusing on the use of thermal cameras and air tightness tests to help reduce energy loss. Prices range from approximately £650 to approximately £1,250 for a four day Thermography certification course.
The collaboration is hoping to reach around 400 students in its first year.
George Baxter, the University’s Director of Research and Innovation said in a press release: “This collaboration will go a long way in training the thousands of professionals we need to implement policies like the Green Deal and meet our energy and carbon targets.”
Posted in Adaptation, Energy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Event Report: “Low Carbon Transitions; Relevant Lessons from the 1970s crisis?”

Posted on May 1, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Attention Conservation Notice: MCFly got invited to an academic seminar entitled “Low Carbon Transitions: Relevant Lessons from the 1970s crisis?” at the CUBE gallery on Portland St, hosted by Salford University’s SURF. The format (more on that) was of short-ish presentations from – mostly – academics, with discussions at each table about those presentations that led to questions back to the presenters. This account is mostly a sentence or two (or four) about each of the presentations,and then some thoughts on missing concepts and possible format innovations. As such, it’s of interest mostly to those who were there, and/or insomniacs.

It started well. A chap from the Grauniad gave an entertaining account from his book “When the Lights Went Out”
He said he was skeptical of the idea that people in the 70s felt – as is now depicted in popular history books – that they were living through endless crisis. He gently derided the game that authors play of pinpointing “the date is all started to go wrong” (Altamont, the IMF in 1976 etc). He made the point that even in the worst years of the 1970s unemployment was lower than during the best years under Blair (and that the Tory PM Edward Heath had reversed economic policy when it looked like unemployment would rise above… 1 million).
As he pointed out, the UK’s problems of the 70s – around the nation state, productivity, sluggish management and poverty – have not been solved by neoliberalism.
On the environmental crisis, he mentioned the best-selling and apocalyptic Blueprint for Survival, the BBC TV show Doomwatch. (the makers of which were invited to speak to the Tory cabinet!).
He gave an entertaining and informative account of a state-sanctioned festival (Watchfield 1975). A report by civil servants afterwards said that it was a positive thing because it had “broadened personal experience through minor law-breaking.” He then spoke of the 1976-8 Grunwick Strike and how it was broken by right-wing non-violent direct action (Operation Pony Express) [see John Gouriet obit here], and how these tactics were used in the 80s (Wapping,the Miners’ Strike). He pointed out that Thatcher’s plans to privatise council housing came from earlier work that the Callaghan government had started making.  This was followed by a q and a. Sadly, MCFly’s reporter was wearing the invisibility cloak that Frodo Baggins left behind on his last visit, so didn’t get to ask a question.  Some stuff on Adam Curtis and also on the birth of think tanks got mentioned.

Fred Steward, who was at Manchester University as the 70s started, and is now Professor of Innovation and Sustainability at the Policy Studies Institute (University of Westminster) was up next, posing the question “Does the alternative economic strategy of the 1970s have any relevance fo trhe 2010s transition to a low carbon society?”outlined some history. He said that there were three things that he wanted to highlight
a) there had been a sixties rebellion against technocratic modernism (He mentioned Illich and Schumacher. Marcuse and the Frankfurt School crowd fit too)
b) In the 70s and 80s there was the emergence of a new ecological paradigm [Stockholm ’72, Lovelock, the Brundtland Commission, etc]
c) 70s labour movement response to capitalist crisis and exhaustion of Statist economic policy.

Prof Steward lamented that there had not been significant engagement between industrial (e.g. trades union) actors and those concerned with global environmental issues.

Tim Jenkins of “new economics foundation” then tried to cram an hour’s worth of slides (from what looked like his ‘basic overview for complete newbies’ presentation) into ten minutes. Blivit. Basic take home point – we’ve been telling ourselves that “efficiency” is the same thing as “resilience” and it isn’t. He also significantly over-ran his time, cutting into the limited time for discussion.

Patsy Healey, (professor emeritus at Global Urban Research Unit in the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Newcastle University) was particularly interested in how cities and the urban are imagined and contested. Her final slides, on how a consultation process around regeneration influenced all the organisations that took part, deserves further unpicking (watch this space).

Aidan While of Sheffield (him of “Sustainability Fixes”)made the point that the term “crisis” (he prefers ‘shock to the system’) allows states to respond in certain ways, foreclosing some options because of the “urgency” of action. He also made the point that if you don’t say what policy-makers are hoping to hear, you tend not to get invited to their meetings. Who knew

Pat Borer of the Centre for Alternative Technology gave a useful comparison of “then” and “now”. He is of the opinion (which MCFly shares) that the green movement has failed and that the species is headed for disaster whether we like it or not.
Jenny Pickerill made the point that progress is always slower than we hope, that we continue to fail to learn from our experience or mistakes, but that a lack of visibility does not necessary mean a lack of progress in ideas and [among other points] that good ideas always get co-opted

Dave Elliott of the Open University looked at the “Alternative Technology” movement of the 1970s and today, pointing out that there was always a divergence within the movement between the diy and the social change views. In his opinion, Alternative Technology was destroyed alongside the Trades Union Movement.

Joanne Wade looked at the different local energy experiments then and now, with a sprinkling of central government cash going out via things like the Low Carbon Communities Challenge. She pointed out distrust of institutions has been building for a very long time. She is of the opinion that “intermediaries” (people tinkering between the household scale and the national) don’t get enough support or funding, and that local authorities need both more capacity and more obligation to get involved in energy production.

This seminar is one of a series, and the next one is in Nottingham in late June.

Shaking up the format

  • Could have pushed the tables aside and had spectrums (alright “spectra”) at the outset to find out how old people were, what their experience was with these issues, what they were currently working on
  • Could have used a smidgen of time to find out what books, films, slogans, songs etc that people know from the 70s, especially ones they think are useful tools for thought/have resonance with our current shituaton. This could have been an icebreaker on the tables, before they went into their appointed role of responding to each speaker (a format that, frankly, began to pall after a while).
  •  Could have done an “activation” phenomenon at each table – pairwise introductions (I.e. talk with the person next to you for a couple of minutes. You are then going to introduce that person to the rest of the group).
  • Could have mixed up the tables after the lunch break so people got to mingle more, instead of sticking to the same 6 or so people.
  • Could possibly have collected more information from each table, instead of just one or two questions directed at the speakers (though then how to collate and process the info – a problem given zero staffing)
  • Could have feedback forms. (MCFly has some. They’re creative commons, so just lift ’em with a credit.)

What was missing?
There was a focus on theory and “hard” infrastructure. Only in the margins was there any discussion about the way that civil society has been hollowed out, and now exists – at best – as a rubber stamp for technocratic managerialism. From an activist’s perspective, that would have been the most useful discussion to have.

Concepts that could usefully have been deployed
Bob Jessop’s conception of the state – especially the shift from Keynesian Welfare State to Schumpeterian Competition State
Habermasian Legitimation Crisis (and not, unrelated, the colonisation of the life-world while yer at it).
Gramsci (he got name -checked) and the whole “morbid symptoms” thing.
The “Crisis” of Democracy – I.e. too much of it. Trilateral Commission report by Samuel “Clash of Civilisations” Huntington
Post-Ecological Thinking of Ingolfur Bluhdorn
Agentic Deadlock of Daniel Hausknost
Carbon Literacy versus Carbon Capability of Whitmarsh et al
New Social Movements theory – cycles of contention etc Tilly, Tarrow, McAdam
New Social Movements as laboratories for new modes of social organisation
Holmgreen’s Four Scenarios
Role of Academics in Post-Fordist economies
Feminist critiques of technology
Any comparison with transition in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union, or in Argentina in the 2000s.

Books and articles
What went wrong? Working People and the Ideals of the Labour Movement. Jeremy Seabrook (all about the 70s)
Simians, Cyborgs and Women by Donna Haraway
The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism Rowbotham, Segal and Wainwright
Apri/May 2012 Red Pepper on Argentina and “collapse”
Lewis Mumford
Paul Goodman (esp book on New York as an educative city. Erm, Communitas? (co-written with his brother)
Susan George How to Win the War of Ideas: Learning from the Gramscian right

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com

To do
Read Andy Beckett’s book
Read more Paul Goodman
Read more Bob Jessop
Make a youtube about Fordism, Post-Fordism and related issues.

Posted in academia, Event reports | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Monthly Journal Overview (“MoJO”) #4, May 2012

Posted on May 1, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Welcome to the latest semi-random pickings from recent journals. We hope that something below is of use to either academics or “activists”, or both. Journals are listed alphabetically. If we’ve missed something written by a Manchester-based academic, or about Manchester, please let us know.

Kate Matthews
MCFly volunteer

Climatic Change
Special Issue on: The Impacts of Climate Change in Europe. The impacts of climate change in Europe (the PESETA research project)

Intensification of seasonal extremes given a 2°C global warming target
Bruce Anderson
Abstract
Current international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit human-induced global-mean near-surface temperature increases to 2°C, relative to the pre-industrial era, are intended to avoid possibly significant and dangerous impacts to physical, biological, and socio-economic systems.
However, it is unknown how these various systems will respond to such a temperature increase because their relevant spatial scales are much different than those represented by numerical global climate models—the standard tool for climate change studies. This deficiency can be addressed by using higher-resolution regional climate models, but at great computational expense. The research presented here seeks to determine how a 2°C global-mean temperature increase might change the frequency of seasonal temperature extremes, both in the United States and around the globe, without necessarily resorting to these computationally-intensive model experiments. Results indicate that in many locations the regional temperature increases that accompany a 2°C increase in global mean temperatures are significantly larger than the interannual to-decadal variations in seasonal-mean temperatures; in these locations a 2°C global mean temperature increase results in seasonal-mean temperatures that consistently exceed the most extreme values experienced during the second half of the 20th Century. Further, results indicate that many tropical regions, despite having relatively modest overall temperature increases, will have the most substantial increase in number of hot extremes. These results highlight that extremes very well could become the norm, even given the 2°C temperature increase target.

Development
Vol 55, Issue 1, 17-24
Economic and Ecological Crises: Green new deals and no-growth economies
Bob Jessop
Abstract
Bob Jessop applies cultural political economy to the global economic and ecological crisis. He presents theoretical preliminaries concerning economic and ecological imaginaries, and then goes on to highlight the multidimensional nature of the current crisis and struggles over its interpretation.

Vol 55, Issue 1, 54–62
Beyond the ‘Green Economy’: System change, not climate change?
Nicola Bullard and Tadzio Müller
Abstract
The ‘green economy’ project claims to address the social, economic and ecological crises afflicting the world today, yet there appears to be too little elite consensus for it to be viable in the near future. Nicola Bullard and Tadzio Müller suggest that this absence of elite consensus renders the counter-hegemonic ‘climate justice’ project similarly weak, leading to a retreat from the global sphere of the (emerging) global climate justice movement. Yet on the ground there are strong and dynamic climate justice movements whose main challenge is to broaden their struggle beyond their current base and to create their own ‘globality’.

Vol 55, Issue 1, 93-106
Incentives to Promote Green Citizenship in UK Transition Towns
Amy Merritt and Tristan Stubbs
Abstract
Amy Merritt and Tristan Stubbs examine the challenges of promoting environmental citizenship in the UK. Citizen participation in policymaking is receiving greater attention from politicians, academics, and citizens. However, due to political and institutional barriers and a lack of resources, citizens face real challenges in their engagement. They explore the legislative parameters of localism in the UK by charting the Transition Town movement’s contribution to locally driven sustainability.

Environment and Planning C
Volume 30, Issue 2, 2012 pages 282 – 296

From a fossil-fuel to a biobased economy: the politics of industrial biotechnology
Ben Richardson
Abstract
Industrial biotechnology involves the replacement of petrochemical processes and inputs with more energy-efficient and renewable biological ones. It is already being used in the production of biofuels and bioplastics and has been touted as a means by which modern economies can be shifted toward a more competitive, low-carbon growth model. This paper does two things. First, it outlines the policy framework established in the European Union and the narrative of a knowledge-based bioeconomy (KBBE) underpinning this. Second, it argues that the ‘win – win’ rhetoric contained within the KBBE narrative is misleading. Among the different groups commenting on the use of industrial biotechnology, the paper locates cleavages between farmers and agribusiness, between those convinced and those sceptical of environmental technofixes, and between procorporate and anticorporate NGOs. Taken together, they show the purported transition from a fossil-fuel to a bio-based economy to be a resolutely political one.

Environmental Politics
Volume 21, Issue 3, 2012, pages 349-368
Planned economic contraction: the emerging case for degrowth
Samuel Alexander
Abstract
The sociological, ecological, and economic foundations of a macroeconomics ‘beyond growth’ are outlined, focusing on the idea of degrowth. Degrowth opposes conventional growth economics on the grounds that growth in the highly developed nations has become socially counter-productive, ecologically unsustainable, and uneconomic. Stagnating energy supplies also suggest an imminent ‘end of growth’. In response to growth economics, degrowth scholars call for a politico-economic policy of planned economic contraction, an approach which has been broadly defined as ‘an equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions’. After defining growth economics and outlining the emerging case for degrowth, the feasibility of a macroeconomics beyond growth is considered and an outline of what such a macroeconomics might look like as a politico-economic programme is sketched.

Also see….

Debating the proper pace of life: sustainable consumption policy processes at national and municipal levels

Green householders, stakeholder citizenship and sustainability

European Planning Studies
Volume 20, Issue 5, 2012, pages 791-816

Renewable Energy Technology and Path Creation: A Multi-scalar Approach to Energy Transition in the UK
Jürgen Essletzbichler
Abstract
This paper examines the potential contribution of UK regions for developing and deploying renewable energy technologies to achieve the government target of obtaining 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The paper argues for a multi-scalar approach to energy transition theory and policy. National-scale processes and policies need to be complemented by regional and local policies in order to discover and incorporate meso-level sources of renewable energy, recognize that niche or path creation is a geographically localized process and mobilize heterogeneous, local actors around common “regional energy visions” to improve implementation of renewable energy projects. After critically reviewing the main theoretical approach to energy transitions, the multi-level perspective, the paper employs patent data to describe the comparative position of UK regions in the renewable energy sector and examines the success of Danish, German and Spanish regions resulting from strong government intervention at the national level supplemented by region-specific strategies. A number of policy strengths and shortcomings are identified in the evolutionary trajectory of the UK energy system including weak technology push and policy pull factors. Finally, the paper reviews existing regional renewable energy policy and speculates on the potential impact of recent changes in spatial and energy policies on the ability to deploy and develop renewable energy sources in the UK.

Global Environmental Politics

May 2012, Vol. 12, No. 2, Pages 1-8
Lost in Translation: Climate Denial and the Return of the Political
Gert Goeminne
Abstract
In this deliberately provocative commentary, I interrogate the relationship between two critical perspectives on the one-sided scientific framing of the climate issue: a constructivist interpretation of climate modeling on the one hand and the debate in political theory on the depoliticization of the public sphere on the other. I argue how they could be tied together in order to provide an enriched understanding of climate denial as a symptom rather than a cause of dysfunctional climate politics.
It is my claim that in attempting to translate the universal validity of scientific knowledge into the contours of an inclusive, consensual negotiation model, the constitutive role of exclusion in the emergence of scientific objectivity is overlooked.

May 2012, Vol. 12, No. 2, Pages 67-86
EU Climate and Energy Policy: A Hesitant Supranational Turn?
Jørgen Wettestad, Per Ove Eikeland, Måns Nilsson
Abstract
This article examines the recent changes of three central EU climate and energy policies: the revised Emissions Trading Directive (ETS); the Renewables Directive (RES); and internal energy market
(IEM) policy. An increasing transference of competence to EU level institutions, and hence “vertical integration,” has taken place, most clearly in the case of the ETS. The main reasons for the differing increase in vertical integration are, first, that more member states were dissatisfied with the pre-existing system in the case of the ETS than in the two other cases. Second, the European Commission and Parliament were comparatively more united in pushing for changes in the case of the ETS. And, third, although RES and IEM policies were influenced by regional energy security concerns, they were less structurally linked to and influenced by the global climate regime than the ETS.

Journal of Industrial Ecology

Volume 16, Issue 2, April 2012, Pages 203-211
Uncertainty and Variability in Product Carbon Footprinting
Christopher L. Weber
Abstract
Recent years have seen increasing interest in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions accounting, also known as carbon footprinting, due to drivers such as transportation fuels policy and climate-related eco-labels, sometimes called carbon labels. However, it remains unclear whether applications of greenhouse gas accounting, such as carbon labels, are supportable given the level of precision that is possible with current methodology and data. The goal of this work is to further the understanding of quantitative uncertainty assessment in carbon footprinting through a case study of a rackmount electronic server. Production phase uncertainty was found to be moderate (±15%), though with a high likelihood of being significantly underestimated given the limitations in available data for assessing uncertainty associated with temporal variability and technological specificity. Individual components or subassemblies showed varying levels of uncertainty due to differences in parameter uncertainty (i.e., agreement between data sets) and variability between production or use regions. The use phase displayed a considerably higher uncertainty (±50%) than production due to uncertainty in the useful lifetime of the server, variability in electricity mixes in different market regions, and use profile uncertainty. Overall model uncertainty was found to be ±35% for the whole life cycle, a substantial amount given that the method is already being used to set policy and make comparative environmental product declarations. Future work should continue to combine the increasing volume of available data to ensure consistency and maximize the credibility of the methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting. However, for some energy-using products it may make more sense to increase focus on energy efficiency and use phase emissions reductions rather than attempting to quantify and reduce the uncertainty of the relatively small production phase.

Nature Climate Change

Vol 2, Issue 5, May 2012
Offsetting under pressure
Abstract
Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the UK Tyndall Centre and an expert on greenhouse-gas emissions trajectories explains to Nature Climate Change why he believes that carbon offsetting can
be worse than useless.

Posted in MoJO | Leave a comment

Manchester Climate nuggets week beginning April 30

Posted on April 30, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Hi all,

new MCFly (#5) only a week away. As ever, we are very very keen to have volunteers give us an hour/day/week/first-born of their lives… mcmonthly@gmail.com

Coming up this week

Tues 1 May NW Sustainable Futures Summit, Museum of Sicence and Insdustry. It will cost you upwards of £75

Tuesday 1, 7pm for 7.30pm. Going Dutch: New homes, New travel arrangements in the Netherlands Transport consultant Richard Armitage is a member of SUNN, the Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods Network. In autumn 2011 SUNN hosted a study tour of three Dutch cities to see how active travel opportunities can be designed into new developments.
Friends Meeting House

Weds 2, 4pm Dr Geoff Vigar (Newcastle) “Localism, Democracy and the State: an interpretive analysis of a Neighbourhood Planning Frontrunner” Hanson Building, Humanities Bridgeford St

Wed 2, 7.30-9.3pm Didsbury Film Society showing of ‘The Economics of Happiness‘. St James and Emmanuel Church, Barlow Moor Rd, Didsbury £4.50, includes wine/drinks/nibbles, good conversation afterwards!

Thurs 3 Council elections. Will Labour scrape home in Manchester?

Friday 4th Climate Survivors meeting call Pauline on 0777 992 3681 for the address – we often meet in someone’s house so we communicate this privately to those who are attending.

Sat 5 May
350.org are sending out a global invite….
In places from drought-stricken Mongolia to flood-stricken Thailand, from fire-ravaged Australia to Himalayan communities threatened by glacial melt, we will hold rallies reminding everyone what has happened in our neighborhoods. And at each of those rallies, from Kenya to Canada, from Vietnam to Vermont, someone will be holding a…dot. A huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, a dot made of fabric and the picture taken from above — you get the idea. We’ll share those images the world around, to put a human face on climate change–we’ll hold up a mirror to the planet and force people to come face to face with the ravages of climate change.
1pm in Piccadilly Gardens…

Stories you may have missed on the MCFly website

Lessons we like to pretend we’ve learned
When you fill in one of those email your MP letters, a copy goes to the guy putting out the private member’s bill.  So be careful what you say. Just sayin’.

Local and Regional News

MEN reports 200 space bike parking hub to be built in city centre basement

Hulme Community Garden Centre is expanding (no link)

MEN desperately trying to magic up large crowds of viewers for the Dreamliner. Fails.

April 24- The Insider reports – “The renewable energy sector in the North West is worth £1.2bn, according to a new report.The new data reveals that 9,400 people are employed in the sector across 611 companies in the North West.
The region has the greatest number of people working in the heat pump sector outside London and the largest wind power workforce outside the capital and the South East, the report says.
It also highlights the work of the Joule Centre for Energy Research, a partnership between universities in the North West.
Lancaster-based Myriad CEG, an on-site green energy specialist, is a major sponsor of the Renewable Energy Association’s report ‘Renewable Energy: Made in Britain’.”

Things worth reading
Watch the climate conversation run aground

Pioneering Commodities Studies Bring Transparency to Oil Companies and Swiss Trading Hub
National oil companies and their customers should publish the price, volume, and crude grade for every  cargo of oil sold, thereby bringing greater transparency to a largely hidden part of the world’s oil market, Revenue Watch (RW) reports in pioneering research released today.
The study is being published simultaneously with the English edition of “Commodities: Switzerland’s Most Dangerous Business,” a groundbreaking analysis of the industry by Berne Declaration (BD) that shows why and how resource-rich developing countries remain poor while Swiss trading companies make billions.

Posted in Weekly bulletins | Leave a comment

Event Report: Tues April 17th Climate Hustings

Posted on April 29, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

On Tuesday 17th April around 50 people gathered in the Friends Meeting House to watch representatives of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens answer the question “Is Manchester City Council taking the right action on climate change?” At the outset, I’d like to thank the panellists for coming when they could have been out knocking on doors, and the chair for coming when she could have been out training for her upcoming John O’Groats to Land’s End cycle ride!

After housekeeping announcements, a “talk to the person behind you” and a quick strawpoll – no-one thought the Council was doing enough – the chair (Lucy Danger) introduced the speakers.
Brian Candeland of the Green Party said that the science of climate change is more definite than ever, despite what you might believe from the media. We are currently at 394 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with a nominally “safe” level being 350ppm. The issue has not gone away, even if it’s energy policy in the news at present. He made a jibe about the “Greenest Government never”, though conceded the Liberal Democrats were trying, but being drowned out. He stated that the room for Manchester City Council (MCC) to act was limited.

He praised MCC insofar as it had responded positively to the “Call to Real Action” campaign, and that it was ahead of other Greater Manchester Local Authorities, and had gotten into the top 5% in DEFRA’s carbon reduction league.

He felt it had not done well in reporting on progress (or lack of it), and that cities like Bradford and Sheffield were well ahead. He felt that the issue needed to be a higher priority, with more imagination (learning from Woking and Kirklees), and that the Airport City idea was fundamentally flawed.

Cllr Marc Ramsbottom, of the Liberal Democrats pointed to MCC’s success in raising recycling levels, albeit from a low baseline. He felt there had been a seachange in recognition, but much more could be done, and there was a constant battle to get green issues taken seriously by officers and councillors. Ultimately, he said, it’s not an issue of having new policies, but implementation of the existing ones.

He wanted to see more collaboration across Greater Manchester Local Authorities. He pointed to MCC leading the way, with the City Deal, and the Co-op sharing “best practice.”

On the national level, he he’d like to see more action, but stressed that it is a coalition government. “It’s no an easy job when dealing with Conservatives, I can assure you.” He made mention of the Green Investment Bank, the Green Deal and so on. On the international level, he felt it was important to educate people about the international impacts of climate change.

Cllr Nigel Murphy, victim of a cruel April Fool’s Day hoax, spoke last. He made the sound point that nobody is doing enough on climate change. He pointed out that MCC had signed up to the 10:10 campaign, to reduce its carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, but had ended up achieving a 6% reduction. Change takes time, there is no magic wand. MCC is a big organisation, with 1000s of employees.

He pointed to the innovation of carbon budgets in every department, and building and energy audits being completed in the next two months. He pointed to the challenge of retrofitting existing buildings (since 80% of the buildings we will have in 2050 are already with us). Manchester Town Hall is one of those, and there’s a heat network being built with the Midland Hotel and 1 Piccadilly Square.

He pointed to schools, which account for 30% of MCC’s emissions, but over which the council has limited control. He mentioned a recent meeting of 35 councillors on this question. On transport he mentioned the importance of encouraging cycling. He lamented the death of the Feed in Tariff, which had meant only 2000 houses owned by Northwards (the Council’s housing offshoot) got panels instead of 5000. He pointed to a recent Green Alliance survey that showed only 35% of local authorities are taking action. And, inevitably, mentioned the Environmental Business Pledge.

Two sentences or not two sentences, that is the question…

The first question was relatively brief – is “climate change” the right terminology – wouldn’t we get further on talking about energy prices and “resource management.”
Marc Ramsbottom felt this would be short-termist, and would imply that environmental issues are only to be dealt with in “rich” times, and pointed to the Town Hall refurbishment as something that is being driven through.
Brian Candeland pointed to the twin economic and ecological crisis, and said that the push to austerity has been a missed opportunity for a Green New Deal.
Nigel Murphy said that indeed some people do “switch off” when they hear the words climate change, but pointed to the landfill tax – once business found it cheaper to reduce waste, they started to do so.

The next question was on how to get schools “onboard”
Nigel Murphy conceded that it’s getting more difficult. Some head teachers are only interested in energy bills. Keystage 1 and 2 “eco-schools” are onboard, but it dies when key stage 3 comes along. He made the analogy with a talented footballer, who would be nurtured, where eco-behaviour is not.
Brian Candeland observed that schools do not exist in a vacuum, that action can happen if individuals are passionate about it.

The next question was on “Food for life”
Nigel Murphy pointed to the work done by Manchester Fayre around Carbon audits of their food, meat free Mondays and fish Fridays. He pointed out that schools have the choice to opt out of Manchester Fayre, so it’s difficult to impose solutions.

The grandchildren of the questioner don’t talk about climate change. Should the Council be leading a public campaign on the dangers?
Marc Ramsbottom felt that MCC is only one body – others should be pitching in too.
Brian Candeland agreed that there was a span of responsibility in the City.

Next up, cycling and recycling.
Nigel Murphy pointed to the GMWDAs work, and praised the cross-party support for Zero Waste.
Brian Candeland was of the opinion that incineration was not the preferred solution – emphasising reduce over reuse and recycle.

A further detailed question on how the Greater Manchester Police deal with cycling accidents and situations where cyclists are the victims of deliberate assaults/intimidation by car drivers
[Irony alert – MCFly co-editor Marc Hudson was on the receiving end of a taxi recently, and the initial GMP response was “no-one’s seriously injured – it’s between you and him.” Their second response, to be fair, was a lot more reasonable]

Our willingness to try to make sense of very long questions died at about this point. The longer the question, the longer the answers. So, from here on it’s more a Seurat than a David…
Can MCC pressure business. Nigel Murphy – if we had control of business rates… We’re trying to do thins with social landlords and private landlords.

Brian Candeland – infinite growth is not possible on a finite planet
Marc Ramsbottom – financial crisis has led to a reconsideration of the treadmill of production. Renewed growth via hitting a “reset button” cannot be done. There’s a major question around inequality, which has grown.

At the death there was a question on the airport. We will look at the video footage and come bck to you on that…

 

Success
The event happened. There aren’t many local elections hustings these days. And this is the only one we are aware of in Greater Manchester on climate change. In twenty years time we will look back in disbelief and anger on that fact.
We made a youtube advertising it, and a youtube about what has and hasn’t been done. We didn’t publicise those enough.o it goes.
The event was filmed by ReelMcr, and will prove useful to their upcoming documentary about retrofit in Abbey Hey.

Failure
Very few people in attendance were from beyond “the usual suspects”. This is to be expected, given the nature and venue of the meeting, but better – more effective – efforts will have to be made in future
Some people chose to demonstrate massive disrespect for the rights of other members of the audience, by using a question period to make speeches that often did not make sense, or were vastly over-long. This deprived other people of their right to ask questions.

Next time
More publicity targeted beyond the “ghetto”. (We did liaise with the Manchester Evening News before the event. They chose not to run a piece about it.)
During the Q and A we may have to resort to only have questions submitted on paper, since there are a minority of people who deliberately choose to abuse the system and make dreary pointless speeches.
Have a team of people doing a write up of different bits of the evening (e.g. three questions per writer, which can then be stitched into a decent account).

Comments from feedback forms
NB MCFly has decided to hold some of the feedback, but has shared it people it concerned. No feedback critical of the organisers has been held back.
Trinity high decided to remove all the mature trees along Cambridge St to build new blocks
It was a pity we did not have longer. Have a monthly meeting
Two sentence limit on questions only works if people get a chance to discuss outside of Q and A. This didn’t happen tonight.
I couldn’t hear Marc Ramsbottom very well. Everything else was well done. Interesting questions.
Seemed more about reassuring and justifying. Instead I would like those with the power and responsibility to “take actions” and be accountable for carrying them through. An ounce of action being worth tonnes of air. Ideas came and went… What will be done by who and when??
Get questions in advance as people come in so you can choose/time better.
Room temperature could have been two degrees lower. Perhaps needed more time. Good idea to allow written questions at the end.
Start earlier. Good meeting.
Mark’s idea of a mingle period was a good one – we do need to meet each other! A poster invitation (e.g. here’s me, what I’m interested in, contacts, etc) would have helped. Blue tacked on walls?
Marc Roberts feedback form terrific, as usual.
No one kept to two sentence question – some were very long and rambly. Collect outstanding (unasked, not amazing) questions at the end – done!
Needs just a little more time
I was happy with meeting
Was good. Good energy. Good participation
Not too bad at all
Fitter questions – need to be more specific. Discussions and feedback
It was a good start/stab. Something about their manifestos on display?
Need more time. (I was late [listening to the Archers]).

Numbers and money
Once we figure out how to do a decent graphic represenation based on the 23 completed feedback forms (anyone any good with spread sheets?) and we’ve figured out the accounts, we will make those public too. Shouldn’t be long.

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Event Report: MMU Green Impacts Awards Ceremony

Posted on April 28, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Over a hundred people gathered in a building that isn’t even officially open yet to celebrate their actions on climate and environment in the last year. The event was the Green Impact Awards 2012 of Manchester Metropolitan University, where 67 teams that had taken part received recognition for their efforts.

It’s easy to sneer (1) at these sorts of things – there’s usually too many speeches, cringe-worthy jokes and a general fug of smug. Fortunately this was not the case today. Phil “Go Compere!” Korbel (2) of “Cooler Projects” opened proceedings by cycling in on a Brompton foldable bike. He hopped off, mentioned the sponsors (his two young daughters) and welcomed everyone. This was followed Vice-Chancellor of the university Prof John Brooks then made an appearance by the magic of DVD. He was followed by Michael O’Doherty (Manchester City Council) talking about domestic retrofit in (Greater) Manchester, Mary Heaney, director of services at MMU who pointed out that there’d only been 15 teams two years ago, 30 last year and, this year 67 [with 48 completing].  She made the observation that “green buildings can turn brown very quickly if there’s no green behaviour.”
John Hindley, Head of Environmental Sustainability, then rattled through 70 slides in (slightly more than) 5 minutes. The first section of these included a shout out to Green Impact co-ordinators Robert Croll and Laura Williams. The rest gave a history since 2008 of MMU’s progress – from 91st in the People and Planet league table to 17th last year, (the next one is published 29 May) with a Sustainable Investment Board set up and still meeting, Fair Trade Accreditation, the largest Green Roof in the City and so on.
Professor Ruth Ashford, Dean of the MMU Business School then gave a presentation on Green Cultural Change at the university. She stated that MMU are now Green Leaders in the Higher Education sector, and that a research area/centre at MMU’s Business School is under way. She also emphasised the “need to ensure all our students are ahead of the game and have a competitive advantage in this area.” (3)

Somewhere amidst all that (I’d had a glass of wine before going in) Robert and Laura had an opportunity to thank everyone who’d taken part.

Next up, a very good film about the whys and hows of the Green Impacts scheme, complete with a blooper reel and “guilty pleasures” clips. It was made by Jerome Arab and Matthew Stanners (4) and we will post it on the MCFly website as soon as it’s up on youtube.

Before the awards ceremony proper, Phil “Sinead O’Connor” Korbel invited all the volunteer auditors (including MCFly’s Laurence Mehninick) down to collect “thank you” certificates.

Then the awards ceremony itself, with “work in progress”, “bronze awards” silver awards” and the Gold Award – awarded this year to Environmental Science Services Team. They’d managed 670 points, with 164 tasks completed. They proudly took delivery of the “gold bin” (a recycling bin that’s been spray-painted, in case you were wondering how to bypass security and get in there and pinch the thing for melting-down purposes!)
Then some gold awards for the MMU labs (Dental, physiology etc)

Yet more awards – “Environmental Hero” “Best Communications Awards”, Best Energy Saving Award, Waste and Recycling Award and the Special Recognition Award, dished out by Steve Connor of Creative Concern.

Closing Time
Phil “the incomperable” Korbel then closed the event with some risky business. Rather than make his own final observations, as per the plan, he threw it open to the audience. This could have gone Badly Wrong, but it didn’t. There were four comments. Here’s what we scribbled down –
“It’s inspirational to have so many teams… we can created a sustainability revolution.” (From one of the people in charge of “MetMUnch” – see youtube here, you can follow them on twitter here.)
“We [in the Labs] have been doing stuff for years – the big challenge was recording what we’ve been doing for years. It’s good to be getting acknowledgement for what we’ve been doing.”
“Wonderful to see how much it’s moved forward in the last few years.” (This from someone who was present at the creation a few years ago, when the MMU management was marginally less effusive about the green agenda than it is now).
“Please expand it to the students next year!”

The event ended with a delicious buffet by the MetMUnch bunch, and opportunities for chatting and schmoozing. The corrosively cynical malcontents who questioned the localness of the strawberries made a bit of an, um, faux pas. They were from Lincolnshire. (5)

Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com

Footnotes
(1) So we are reliably informed. It’s just not something we do here at MCFly towers.
(2) Looong-ago graduate of the poly that became MMU. (Rumour has it that the law courses were taught by Blackstone himself.)
(3) Indeed, and if ever MCFly needs to illustrate the switch from a Keynesian Welfare State to a Schumpeterian Competition State, that quote will do nicely.
(4) It was made by two young film-makers. “Young upcoming film maker Jerome Arab from Zimbabwe, currently based in Manchester, is working on another docu-film based on struggles faced by young creative people in the UK and a feature film based on his personal life as a performer.
“Assistant director Matthew Stanners is another film-maker based in Manchester. Originally from Denmark, he studied at MMU and graduated with a BA in contemporary art and MA in media arts.”
(5) We didn’t ask if they were from a heated greenhouse… We will.

Reservations
Awards ceremonies like these always risk an element of self-congratulation. (But then, if you start doing good stuff, how else are you going to continue, and draw other people in, without an element of self-congratulation).
There was no acknowledgement (it would have spoiled the mood) that the actions being taken now are the “low-hanging fruit” – the things that are easy-ish to change and save money you money quickly. Driving towards the very ambitious targets beyond 2020 will – in all probability –  cost serious moolah and be very disruptive (not in a good way).
The actions taken all exist within the context of “ecological modernisation” – see MCFly 3 for a bluffer’s guide to this concept.

Disclaimers
MCFly was invited to have a stall at the event. We know the organisers and the compere of the event socially, so slagging them off would have been slightly awkward. The food was bloody lovely. All these factors may have dulled our critical faculties and been the reason we didn’t get the thumb screws out and interview Mary Heaney about Birley Fields. Or quiz the procurement people about the precise provenance of the strawberries. C- for the investigative journo, eh?

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Something for the Weekend 27th April 2012

Posted on April 27, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

How many counsellors does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.

And this weekend…)
Saturday 28, 11am-3pm Love Food Fest is a celebration of sustainable eating in Manchester. There will be free food and drinks and hands-on workshops on the themes of growing food, cooking cheap and healthy recipes and food composting. There will be tonnes of fun food games and best of all entry is completely free!
Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road

Sat 28, 11am-5pm – Farmers’ Market and Craft Fair
Regular market, held on the last Saturday of each month. The cream of the North West’s farmers, growers, producers and artisans descend on Chorlton Green to sell directly to the public.
Several new stalls this month
Farmers’ Market in front of the Horse and Jockey
Craft Fair – inside the pub
BBQ on the terrace (if fine)

If you know of weekend events that are about “climate” (and that includes food growing, or cycling or whatever), then let us know and we can include them in future “Something for the Weekend”s…

And if you know any jokes of the high standard we’ve used so far, please submit ’em.

Posted in Something for the Weekend | 1 Comment

Course alert: Internal Auditor Training (ISO 14001) – May 31st

Posted on April 26, 2012 by manchesterclimatemonthly

We got an email through from Groundwork. (ISO14001 is pretty tough. Back in January we reported on how Manchester-based law firm Pannone achieved it).


We are writing to inform you of our ISO 14001 Internal Auditor Training day on the 31st May 2012. This course is crucial to those who wish to achieve and maintain a successful environmental management system certified to ISO 14001:2004 or BS8555:2003. The course requires no previous knowledge of environmental management or auditing as in completion of this course delegates will have the knowledge and skills necessary to audit an EMS and associated activities.

Subjects Covered
The role of environmental auditing with an EMS
Key components of an EMS internal auditing procedure
How to plan and prepare an EMS Internal Audit
How to conduct an EMS Internal Audit

Candidate Outcomes
Understand the benefits of conducting internal audits
Identify the key principles of EMS internal auditing
Understand how to conduct an EMS internal audit.

Course Details
DATE: 31st May 2012
VENUE: Groundwork Timber Wharf, Castlefield, Manchester, M15 4LD (see map)
TIME: 9.00am–5.00pm
COST: £150+vat (10% discount for BEA members)
FOR: Any persons with the responsibility of conducting EMS Internal Audits (no previous knowledge needed)

BOOK ONLINE

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