The super short version
CEM was born in March 2019 to try to force the City Council to declare a Climate Emergency. The main mechanism we had for this was a petition on the City Council’s website.
In July 2019 the Council did in fact do this (we were a part of the pressure that led to this, but by no means the only or biggest part)
We started producing “Hung Drawn and Quarterly” reports about the council’s lack of progress in October 2019
In January 2020 we decided that we would have to do another petition, in order to get the Council to set up a dedicated climate scrutiny committee.
It was going well. Then Covid happened.
We persisted. We grew in numbers, confidence, supporters.
In September 2020 we produced a bloody fantastic Student Guide to the Climate Crisis.
In November 2020 our petition ended. In February we presented it to Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee. The committee recommended that a dedicated climate scrutiny committee be established. On Wednesday 31st March, at the next meeting of full Council, that should be proposed and voted on. Watch this space…
There will be a too long don’t read version of this history soon. Bet you can’t work.