Climate Emergency Manchester today releases Hung, Drawn and Quarterly 3 – its third independent assessment of Manchester City Council’s progress on meeting the promises of its climate emergency declaration. The report examines the MCC Climate Action Plan 2020-25 approved in March 2020 and shows that even before the crisis of Covid-19 there was uncertainty about how savings were calculated and actions prioritised.
Many of the areas key to a zero carbon recovery, such as retrofit and sustainable travel, have not been backed up with investment or are not being measured in a way that enables progress to be monitored.
The report available here in pdf makes four recommendations:
– Embed the Zero Carbon Coordination Group into recovery discussions
– Undertake further work on costings ahead of the June / July budget refresh
– Roll out policies due to be launched in April 2020 as soon as possible
– Engage citizens meaningfully in a time of social distancing
Chloe Jeffries, one of the authors of the report, noted:
“Although there has been much talk of building back better, this report shows that a zero carbon recovery is still a long way off becoming a reality. There is a risk that the lack of detail about many of the steps needed to reduce emissions will make it difficult to factor these actions into the upcoming budget refresh and other recovery plans”.
Few of Manchester City Council’s committee meetings have so far moved online. The full Council scheduled for today, 20 May, will not now take place until November. Neigbourhoods and Environment and Scrutiny Committee are still deciding how best to meet virtually. However, Climate Emergency Manchester will host an alternative ‘people’s scrutiny’ committee on the same days that NESC was scheduled to meet to ensure that the climate emergency remains on the agenda, even in lockdown.
More details coming soon!
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