*Manchester Plane Stupid disrupt airport industry conference

In the best traditions of print journalism, we hereby cut and paste a press release as an article:

"Manchester Plane Stupid disrupt airport industry conference"

Tuesday 16th June 2009

Campaigners disrupted an airport industry conference today using rape alarms
tied to helium balloons . The protesters from the group Manchester Plane
Stupid entered the Manchester Central conference venue (formerly GMEX) and
sent five bunches of helium balloons reading 'Happy Retirement' to the top
of the ceiling where they remained with the alarms ringing. This occurred at
exactly the time when the industry delegates were posing for a photo shoot
for the launch of a new carbon reduction scheme at European airports which
will not include emissions from aircraft.

*FOR PICTURES
*http://stopmanchesterairport.blogspot.com/
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432433.html
http://www.planestupid.com/

Outside, protesters held a banner outside the entrance reading,
“Aviation Industry Conference – Climate Criminals Inside”.

The group were protesting against the aviation's growing contribution to
climate change. Aviation currently accounts for around 13% of the UK's
greenhouse gas contribution.

Megan Sims from Manchester Plane Stupid said, “The airport industry is
recklessly pushing ahead with expansion plans across the UK and Europe
despite all the warnings about climate change. We cannot pursue this growth
agenda if we are serious about tackling global warming.”

“Their latest back-patting exercise is yet more greenwash from the airport
industry. They provide the growth of the facilities for aircraft to operate
and encourage more flights, more emissions and more climate change.”

The three day conference was being hosted by Airports Council
International.[1] The conference was suspended whilst house staff struggled
to remove the floating alarms from the ceiling.

MCFly 26- Environment Commission update

At the latest meeting of the Environment Commission (EC) on June 8, energy infrastructure and resilience have emerged as major issues that need to be tackled in Greater Manchester. Commissioners [minus MP Piddington & Molyneux; Angie Robinson (Manchester Chamber of Commerce); Andy Cliffe (MAG) and Ian McAuley of United Utilities sent a substitute] spent an away day pin-pointing issues to lead the commission, and ways in which they could be tackled effectively. One suggestion was that each commissioner could champion a certain issue. Other concerns that emerged included the need to raise the climate change agenda and to deal with waste by altering consumer habits.

As planned, the EC invited Mark Watts (ex-senior advisor to Ken Livingston) to discuss the lessons to be learnt from London's failed Climate Change Agency, and how to avoid these pitfalls when forming Manchester's very own Climate Change Agency. One conclusion seemed to suggest that there needs to be a closer link with local authorities when carrying out any projects.

The commissioners have also asked for a review by independent assessment of the region's environment performance. This is vital to help assess how well/badly Manchester is doing and what really needs to be improved - the initial findings will be announced some time at the end of next week and MCFly will report on them in the next issue.

For more information, see www.manchesterclimatefortnightly.info/environmentcommssion.html. For a graphic representation of who these guys are and how "it all fits together", see www.manchesterclimatefortnightly.info/organisationalchart.html

MCFly 26- Carbon Reduction Fund Found

MCFly has been asking, for a long long time, about a million quid the Council has earmarked for climate change work. The money was announced in February 2008 (that's not a typo), with the aim of acting as "leverage for the development of a Manchester Carbon Reduction Innovation and Investment Fund, to be matched by partners and stakeholders to fund carbon reduction and renewable energy infrastructure projects."

In issue 6 of MCFly (August 2008) we reported what the Council had told us: that it was "within days, or at most weeks, of announcing a series of specific projects" that would be both 'commercially-robust' and 'future-proof.'

Well, we have kept asking, and can now exclusively reveal the following: Since the money was announced in February 2008, at absolute most £69,000 has been spent, on the following-

Smart Metering £5k (in the City Centre), Town Hall Retrofit £15k and i-Trees £49k, (with "£49k match funding for i-trees from the universities", which may mean only £20,000 of the £1,000,000 has been spent.)

We asked what projects are “in the pipeline”? i.e. what money is earmarked for what projects and were told that "no money has been earmarked as it will be a competitive process, with funding allocated on the strength of projects meeting the set criteria."

We also wanted to know if more money had been forthcoming. No further matching funds have come from "partners and stakeholders", as was initially hoped. Crucially "no further Council funds have been committed, the £1m was carried over into 2009/10."

MCFly 26- Sustainable Manchester festival

Sustainable Manchester Festival, October 24 and 25
A mixture of entertainment, information, action and engagement, to celebrate action taking place in Manchester. It will engage the Manchester community in the issues of climate change and the work that is being done to deal with the threat, create opportunities for organizations to educate the public on what they have done/are doing, and plan to do, and also will launch a city wide competition, the Community Initiative Prize, to develop innovation in community initiatives, with the profit from the festival going to fund the winners. First meeting Thurs June 18 at 7.30pm, at Cafe Nexus, sustainablemanchester@googlemail.com

MCFly 26- Bonn voyage, humanity?

At the latest meeting preparing for December's "crunch" Copenhagen climate summit the governments of the world agreed to... keep talking. China wants the rich to make deeper cuts than they want. The US has said it doesn't expect binding cuts from China. Japan low-balls its target. Read more-
www.manchesterclimatefortnightly.info/copenhagen.html

MCFly 026- Action Update 1

Action Plan Update #1
Manchester City Council has publicly committed to producing a Climate Change Action Plan by the end of November 2009. From Monday 15 June to November 30 there are 167 days, inclusive. MCFly will be reporting every issue on what progress is being made towards that goal and just how you, the citizens of Manchester, can get involved with your ideas, energy and enthusiasm.
www.manchesterclimatefortnightly.info/actionplan.html

Be there or be square

On Monday June 29 Manchester City Council launches - at last - its 'low carbon communities' work, with an event at Manchester Town Hall. The Council wants at least a hundred people to come and get cracking on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and to prepare for the inevitable changes that will come. The event runs from 4pm to 8pm (you don't have to stay for the whole thing!) with food and plenty of time for mingling and networking.
Workshops, which each run for 45 minutes, will run a number of times so people can have a choice of attending one or all of 'em.
Workshop 1 Climate change and carbon footprinting - what is it, how will it affect Manchester and how communities can help; Basic information on renewable technologies and sustainable energy.
Workshop 2 Exploring how low carbon living can benefit communities; Case studies of successful projects; Getting started, planning and research.
Workshop 3 How to apply for funding (criteria and completing the application form); How to raise interest in your project and get people on board.
For a year we at MCFly have been banging on about how little the Council has done on Climate Change, especially on engaging and involving people. Well, now they're doing something, and it is very very important that you go to the event, even if only to tell the Council what it SHOULD be doing. Oh, and tell all your friends, family, work colleagues, and drag 'em along with you. This matters.
You sign up here: http://livingcommunities.eventbrite.com