ACTION: Will your council candidates support climate pledges?

Local elections are happening on the 5th May in Manchester, and We Need YOUR Help to ensure the climate emergency is meaningfully on the agenda. 

A key question in this election is: Will the candidates running back the following simple commitments on climate action? 

www.climateemergencymanchester.net Will your local election candidates support climate action in Manchester? Will candidates standing to be your councillor in Manchester’s local elections on Thursday 5th May support three simple commitments that would help the Council respond to the climate emergency? Focus on the carbon budget - will your wannabe councillors remind people about progress against the city’s carbon emissions budget, whenever they mention the aim of the city to be “zero carbon by 2038”? 1. Sustained climate scrutiny - will your wannabe councillors lobby for all scrutiny committees to receive and properly consider at least two reports in 2022 about the connections between the climate emergency and their committee’s remit? 2. Action at the Executive - will your wannabe councillors push for a standing item at Executive so that the big cheeses will discuss actions taken in response to the climate emergency at every meeting? 3. Let us know who you asked, and tell us what they say by emailing us at contact@climateemergencymanchester.net or tweet us @ClimateEmergMcr View candidate names & responses! https://rebrand.ly/climate-vote-map

These three questions are a good test of where your council wannabes stand. If all the candidates back these commitments, then we could get: 

  • More focus on the carbon emissions budget for the city (which is rapidly disappearing!), rather than only the feel-good talk about the distant ‘zero carbon 2038’ target. 
  • Sustained climate scrutiny across all Manchester’s committees, to avoid having the climate emergency siloed and largely ignored during most Council scrutiny meetings. 
  • Action at the Executive, where senior councillor decision-makers gather, by having a standing item that addresses action on the climate emergency.

We need your help! Candidates are standing in every ward in Manchester. Please contact the candidates standing in your ward and ask them if they would support these commitments when elected, Yes or No. 

Here’s how to help: 

  • Search for your candidates’ contact details. Many candidates are on Twitter or other social media. Sometimes candidates’ contact details are listed on leaflets that come through your letter-box. You can find a list of your candidates’ names via our map, wikipedia, or the Council website. The website Who Can I Vote For often lists relevant contact information. 
  • Contact your candidates and ask if they support these pledges, yes or no. Let us know who you have contacted. Email us at contact@climateemergencymanchester.net or tweet us @ClimateEmergMcr
  • Tell us when you receive any responses, so we can update our publicly accessible map with the information. This will help everyone to know which candidates have been asked, and what they said about these commitments.  

Below is a template letter that you can use (please edit the brackets!). 

The council is for life, not just for election season. If you’d like to understand the council better, we’ve just released an updated comprehensive guide to detangling the institutional web of the council, which you can read here

Thank you for helping us with this campaign, and we look forward to hearing from you! 

 

Dear [wannabe councillor X] 

I hear you are running to be my councillor in [X ward]. Good luck with the campaigning. Please can you tell me if you support the following commitments on climate action? 

  1. The city’s carbon budget – Will you remind people about progress against the city’s carbon emissions budget, whenever they mention the aim of the city to be “zero carbon by 2038”? 
  2. Sustained climate scrutiny – Will you lobby for all scrutiny committees to receive and properly consider at least two reports in 2022 about the connections between the climate emergency and their committee’s remit? 
  3. Executive action – Will you push for a standing item at Executive so that senior councillors will discuss actions taken in response to the climate emergency at every meeting?

I look forward to hearing from you. I know you are busy – a simple yes or no to each question is fine. 

Yours in anticipation, 

[Name xxx, Address xxx]

Want to know more about the Council’s structures like Executive and Scrutiny, and why they matter for the local response to the climate emergency? Don’t forget to check out our newly updated guide!

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