New report – very little progress by #Manchester Council on #climate action

They will point to the garbage trucks that Biffa is buying for its fleet across the country as evidence of their action on climate change.

They will point to their own emissions coming down, without ever mentioning this is largely because austerity has shrunk staffing levels

They will never come out and say, up front, that the city has blown a quarter of its “science-based” carbon budget for the 21st century in two years.

They never give speeches about climate change to “ordinary people”

“They” in case you are late to the party, is Manchester City Council.

The latest Hung Drawn and Quarterly report, 21 months on from Manchester City Council’s declaration of a “climate emergency”, is released today, ahead of the climate Hustings on Monday 19th April (register here).

In the past, Climate Emergency Manchester has made “recommendations”.  These have been ignored. So instead, we will merely highlight the following.

  • No speeches have been given about climate change by “leaders”
  • The Council’s web communications on climate remain disastrous
  • No carbon literacy training undertaken in a year, target pushed back five years.
  • No actual climate action in wards (lots of litter-picking though)
  • No discussions with GMCA/TfGM about decarbonising heat and transport

The one recommendation is that councillors who are not currently in charge take a long hard look at what Manchester City Council is doing in their name, and ask themselves if they are happy, if they are proud.

In a departure from previous HDQs, it also talks about what else the council hasn’t been doing, and about who/what CEM is.

You can download it as a pdf here.

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