Climate Forum Jan 20 report

On Wednesday night a small number of people from a diverse range of groups gathered at the latest “Manchester Climate Forum” to talk about the outcomes of the Copenhagen Climate Summit and its implications for Manchester, and also about “what makes a good group”.

On Copenhagen- the actual accord is only 3 pages long (see here). It turns out that the “targets” that countries were supposed to sign up to by January 31st are now “soft.” Oh dear.

There was discussion around what consequences- if any- the failure of the Copenhagen meeting had for Manchester and 'activism'. There was discussion over what could and should be done by NGOs in the run up to the Mexico City meeting of November 2010.

Secondly, the meeting broke into pairs and threes to write up thoughts on the qualities of “good” groups and “bad” groups and ways that people could be retained within groups (with the proviso that merely retaining people does not necessarily make a group “good”!). You can read these in a separate blog post on the “Time to GLOW” website – comments very welcome!


This was followed by announcements of upcoming events (see MCFly calendar for those and other events)

The next Manchester Climate Forums are on Weds 17 February, Weds 17 March and Tuesday 20 April (a pre-election debate between Councillors and candidates). All meetings are at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Central Manchester (behind the Central Library). Mingling and writing-on-flipcharts and other icebreakers from 7pm, for a 7.30pm sharp start.