Concerned but not convinced: Manchester Council and the lack of public consultation

Today, MCFly went along to the latest council meeting dealing with the recent Call to Action to highlight problems with the report and its catalytic actions. We wanted to ask the Overview and Scrutiny Committee why the six-months public consultation promised in February 2008 had been replaced by the rather vague “Proud Of”campaign and Robbie Gillett from Manchester University Student Union was also at the meeting to ask about the council's 'Green Airport'.

Public consultation
MCFly directly asked about public consultation and told the committee that we didn't feel that the 'Proud Of' Campaign was good enough. Beverley Taylor, head of Environmental Campaigns, replied:
“It's not an action plan at the moment, it's a call to action and hopefully by the end of the year we'll have an action plan that has a lot of information but also has the response from all the different sectors.
“There is still quite a high number of people who don't understand what climate change is about or are mixed up about what its about. If I can quote the national MORI poll, I think the quote was 'concerned but not convinced'. It about targeting those people in a positive way.”

In contrast Vicky Rosin, the Assistant Chief Executive was very clear about the limits of public consultation with the council.
“What we decided is to bring forward a number of actions and show real leadership from the council. Consulting on the actions we intend to take forward is not something that's part of our exercise as consultation means we are prepared to change it and we intent absolutely on taking this action forward.”

Richard Cowell, the Executive member for the Environment also added that: “Yes, we've set a firm direction of where we want to go, we're not going to carry on consulting getting nowhere.”

It seems, that now that the catalytic actions have been decided the Council is absolutely unwilling to take on board any genuine public input which questions them (including the controversial Green Airport). The 'Proud Of' Campaign which seeks to engage more people in climate change is great but it is NOT six-months public consultation and is it NOT geared directly towards the report with a real ability to change it significantly. There has clearly been some slippage in the council's initial promise of real public input which remains unaccounted for.

Green Airport
Cllr Norman Lewis brought up the issue of 'Green Airport' stating that:
“If the proposed expansion of the airport happens as driver of economic growth, it wipes out all the hard work that might be out in by business to reduce CO2 emissions.”

Gillett also pointed out that “We are the generation that is going to be most affected by climate change and we want to act on it and work with the council, but if the council is going to pass the buck onto a national level then that will jeopardize the sincerity of how it is perceived amongst students.”

Cowell answered: “We will seek to look at aviation in terms of international perspective, not as a unilateral act.
“Concrete actions will be flowing from this [Call to Action], at the Executive meeting the Liberal Democrat Leader [Cllr Ashley] was calling for just purely symbolic, unilateral actions around the airport. I've used the word symbolic- that's not what were about. This report is based on our community strategy and on concrete catalytic actions we can take to deal with problem of CO2 emissions.”

One of the major issues MCFly had with the Call to Action report was the lack of concrete targets or outcomes from the catalytic actions. With regards to the airport, the report itself acknowledged that any direct impact on CO2 emissions was “subject to airport decisions and other factors.” Furthermore only 4 out of the 9 catalytic actions had any significant impact on CO2 emission. In fact, the Manchester Prize which was action number 7 had no direct impact was considered simply 'totemic'.

Action Now!?
Cowell reiterated the need for immediate action stating that climate change is a “problem we need to start addressing now.
“If you're suggesting that we hold off, hold off, hold off and hold off until there is international agreement on aviation, I don't think that's the right approach to take. We have had 17 principles brought in last year, we've has a great deal of work put into this document and we're ready now to get on with actioning now, to start making a difference now. I'm not prepared to hold off and hold off.”

However, as reported by MCFly on a number of occasions, the council announced the 17 climate principles back in February 2008 and promised a Climate Strategy in the same year with six-months public consultation. This didn't happen and almost a year later the 'Call to Action' has been released with the final detailed action report now expected December 2009. Planned to coincide with the international summit at Copenhagen, we might add..

Don't Feed the Trolls!

Quite a while back (early December) I blogged about Peter fuckwit Sissons,
a BBC presenter. He interviewed Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader, on the day
of the tedious Climate March in London. And trotted out a ludicrous 'is climate
change even happening' set of questions, which I thought the BBC had realised was
intellectually dishonest and bankrupt years ago.

And finally, somehow, someone has left a comment on that blog!

I include it here, without cutting any a single foam-flecked word from it,
and with my responses interspersed.

There is a basic (eponymous) rule of blogging/the tinterwebs that I am
breaking here, and I may ruefully rue it, but I think there is a Principle
At Stake Here.

tallbloke has left a new comment on your post "MEN,
eh useless or what?":

Peter Sissons was quite right to question Caroline Lucas on
the validity of man made global warming theory. Science is
an ongoing process,
Yes, but that doesn't mean there aren't things we are sure of.  I take
it you are pretty sure about gravity.  Or that eating a cake full of
cyanide is a bad idea.
Or that there is a causal link between asbestos/cigarette smoking
and dying of lung diseases.  "Science is an on-going process" can be
simply a code for "there are things I wish weren't true."

digression
Oh, and science can be kind of post-normal. And these problems 
can be wicked, if you kuhn believe it.
end digression

and the standard geen party line of 'the debate is over'
doesn't change that.
Geen or green? If it's deliberate, I'm really embarrassed for you. It's
childish and demeaning (to you) and, crucially, not even funny. Jokes
are supposed to be funny. If accidental, it's  at best careless: ironic
for someone who is claiming to overturn established consensus.
Surely self-appointed "mavericks" have to be more careful?

More crucially, you are framing this (deliberately or accidentally?) as
a debate between the BBC and the Green Party.  You are at risk of
claiming Climate Change 'theory' is a creation of the Green Party.
You are ignoring the IPCC, the WMO, Woods Hole, Scripps, NASA's 
Goddard Centre.  And, oddly, the Financial Times, which is by far the
best newspaper on Climate Change. Do you think the Green Party is
in a secret conspiracy with the FT? And the insurance industry too?
Or do you have some other overarching explanation?
New evidence of other climate drivers and the uncovering
of the falsification of data by Hansen, Jones and Mann
means the question is still wide open.
Well, if *I* were making such a sweeping claim, I would feel obliged
to provide some actual references, and links to peer-reviewed science.
You have obviously not felt under such an obligation.  Interesting.
More likely you are waiting for me to ask for some, and then send a
long list of previously discredited articles by Viscount Monckton and
the like. And your "new evidence" will be the same old spurious 
sunspot stupidity.

You can choose not to publish this comment, which would
of course be a perfect demonstartion of the way the contrary
opinion is stifled by those afraid of scientific truth and
open debate.
Ah yes, the deep-seated need of climate denialists to be
martyrs heroically bearing the slings and arrows and slights of a
sinister Green Conspiracy.

Oh, and "demonstartion".  You have chosen not to spell-check
your email. Why should we take you seriously, if you are unwilling
to display basic courtesy?

Oh, and let me share a secret with you.  Most people working
hard on climate change have been through years of this sort of
thing. And at least some (I've not asked everyone) went through
the same process as me- of actually getting excited and hopeful
when someone said climate change wasn't happening, things were
going to get better. And then we read the so-called evidence and
reports, and realise that no, the horrifically gloomy stuff we had
previously gotten used to was more likely, was happening faster
than was even predicted.  Have a read of Elizabeth Kolbert's Field 
Notes from a Catastrophe, or Fred Pearce's The Last Generation.
You seem to think the Green Party is talking up climate change.
Why would a political party wanting votes do that?
You seem to think that climate activists are unreflectively hooked
on gloom. Well,  I and my colleagues aren't.  We think hard, and
search hard for information.

You (deliberately?) misunderstand what MCFly is about.  We are
not here to debate the science. We are here to inform the people
of Manchester about what the council, businesses and locals are
doing about climate change.

If you want to learn more/flame about the science, there are plenty
of places you can do that.  RealClimate.org is an obvious place
to begin.

I suggest, if you are so sure of your facts and so eager that
your contrary opinion is not "stifled", that you spend the sort of
time we do at MCFly on setting up your own website, and inviting
other people (us, for example) to comment on it.    We don't have
the time or the inclination to get involved in trolling and spamming
with people who don't even give references for their unwarranted
smears on people like Hansen and Mann, who anyway are only a few
among a much much broader consensus on the science
(Oreskes reference).

As you so astutely and incisively pointed out at the beginning of
your comment, “science is an ongoing process.”
Now, most people would say there is overwhelming empirical evidence
to support the hypothesis that you are trolling. Still, science being
what it is, I have to allow for Black Swans.  I'm going to try to (get
you to) falsify my hypothesis that you are a troll.

If you can come up with a short (no more than 300 words), legible,
spell-chekced and properly referenced [peer-reviewed, not funded
by oil and coal companies. That excludes Pat Michaels, for example]
reply to the above points, then sure we will post it.  We will publish
a blog post that links to whatever website YOU set up to display your
wide and deep understanding of climate science.

If you can't, this conversation is closed. We don't have time
for trolls.

Fart Gags and/or Climate Justice Analysis

On a day when news reaches us of a shambolic and literally unendurable Climate Camp meeting in Oxford, and on a day when the Financial Times reports that the price of carbon in the EUETS is at a record low, with predictable negative consequences for investment in low-carbon technology, it's hard to find Reasons to be Cheerful.

Sure, there's the inevitable fart gags of Marc Roberts. But for once he is trumped (ho ho) in the RtbC stakes.

Danny Chivers [disclaimer- I know him a little] has written a very clear and actually amusing (no, really) summary of what is likely to be on the table at Copenhagen. More up to the minute than my look last June or so...

Chivers' piece is in the New Internationalist.

Email Bulletin 3 out now

In the weeks between MCFlys, we publish an email bulletin.

We've started posting it on the website too. Here's a link to the latest bulletin.

And here it is as a blog post-

Dear all,

welcome to the third “in-between” email bulletin of Manchester Climate Fortnightly. These will be sent out on the weeks in-between issues of Manchester Climate Fortnightly. The next MCFly, issue 17, will be published Sunday February 10.

Last chance to win £30 for your 600 words on climate change!
You have until Friday 6^th February to enter the “Climate Change: What Do We Do Now?” short essay competition, on the question “What are the current problems/future opportunities for climate campaigners in Greater Manchester”
http://www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk/whatdowedonow.html

LOCAL NEWS

1) On Tuesday 3^rd February Manchester City Council's Oversight and Scrutiny Committee for Neighbourhood Services meets on Tuesday afternoon, for one of its scheduled meetings.
The committee is made up of Labour and Lib Dem councillors whose job it is to, erm, have oversight and do scrutiny on what the Executive is up to. (Roughly comparable to Select Committees in the Westminster System)
Why are we telling you this? Well, it's an opportunity for the “Call to Action” report that has featured in the last two MCFlys to be examined in more depth. We will blog about it!

2) The third bulletin of the Manchester Climate Change Agency, which will open its doors late summer, has been published. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be up on their website yet, http://www.manchester-enterprises.com/news/ManCCAB2.html
So you'll have to make do with a MCFly gloss
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/manchester-climate-change-agency-news.html
The MCCA has awarded a £25,000 tender to a consultancy to investigate potential governance structures, with the work to be completed by mid March. MCFly will tell you more as soon as we get info.

3) Manchester Climate Fortnightly is blogging on each of the City Council's proposed “Catalytic Actions”, and encourages you to add your comments. Think of it as a DIY consultation, since the Council seems very very resistant to the idea of keeping its promise to consult with the people of Manchester about its Climate plans.

Action 1- World-leading neighbourhood regeneration
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/catalytic-action-1-world-class.html

Action 2- Retrofitting Manchester's Civic Heritage
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/catalytic-action-2-retrofitting.html

Action 3- Business Alliance for Climate Change
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/catalytic-action-3-business-alliance.html

Action 4- Low Carbon Energy
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/catalytic-action-4-low-carbon-energy.html

Action 5- Low Carbon Communities
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/02/catalytic-action-5-low-carbon.html

4) Manchester Climate Fortnightly has learnt that the Call to Action cost at least 650 a page.

Beyond Belief Monday 26 Jan blog posting.
“MCFly can exclusively reveal that Manchester City Council paid the London-based consultancy 'Beyond Green' a whopping ₤28,000 plus VAT and expenses for the 50-page Call to Action report, published last week. With VAT, this brings the total to ₤32,900 and we have no idea how much this 'eco-consultancy' has claimed for expenses- the Council's information did not include these figures. All in all this means that the council has paid- hopefully not from the ₤1 million Carbon Reduction Innovation and Investment Fund- over ₤650 per page....”
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/beyond-belief.html

UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS

Tues Feb 3 8pm Manchester Climate Action social, at Sandbar, Grosvenor St www.manchesterclimateaction.org.uk

Thurs Feb 5 7pm Rubbish Revamped –workshop to turn junk into attractive items. rubbishrevamped.wordpress.com

Tues Feb 10 from 7.30pm

Cllr Richard Cowell, Executive Member for the Environment and Dr Victoria Johnson of the New Economics Foundation will be discussing the City Council's "Call to Action" and the recent climate negotiations in Poland.
Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St
www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk

Catalytic Action 5: Low Carbon Communities

The Executive of Manchester City Council- in effect the “Cabinet” of the 96 seat elected body, has recently accepted a report called the “Call to Action.”

A London-based consultancy called “Beyond Green” wrote the report, (for £32,000 plus expenses), which commits the Council to nine “catalytic actions.”

They are:

1. World-leading neighbourhood regeneration

2. Retrofitting Manchester's civic heritage

3. A business alliance for climate change

4. Low carbon energy infrastructure

5. Low Carbon Communities

6. A climate-ready Local Development Framework

7. The Manchester Prize

8. Greening the City: i-Trees

9. A green airport

We here at MCFly Towers think that these sorts of things go better with consultation. While we are waiting for the Council to announce just what it is going to do on this question, we will be posting one “catalytic action” per day on the MCFly blog, with a brief analysis. We invite the people of Manchester (and heck, why not beyond) to comment on these. We will pass on your comments to the Council.

That's not to say the other parts of the report aren't worthy of comment too- it's just that we have to start somewhere, and here is as good a place as any...

Low Carbon Communities

"The City Council will encourage neighbourhood or community groups to identify opportunities across the city in which to pilot transformational Low Carbon Communities.

"This will demonstrate how existing neighbourhoods can combat climate change, improve their local environment, increase social cohesion and cut energy costs and fuel poverty through a comprehensive but affordable package of action to reduce their carbon footprint. The project could include:

• "Creating,on a self-financing basis, a community renewable energy supply in which residents own a stake and benefit from the sale of surplus energy via the grid;
• "Helping homeowners to release equity in their homes based on savings on future energy bills to fund retrofitting improvements in energy efficiency, and procuring improvements on a co-ordinated basis to realise purchasing power;
• "Preparing a green travel plan for the community and facilitating car-share schemes, public realm improvements and other measures to encourage more sustainable travel patterns;

-snip-

"Engaging local people in wider sustainable regeneration of their choosing – for example using underused open space for food production, setting up social enterprises for land management and community composting, or establishing organic box schemes; and larger-scale interventions for example through the redevelopment or reuse of under-utilised buildings to enhance the physical and social character of the area and release additional value for community uses.

"In order to further define and scope the concept of Low Carbon Communities and establish a framework of support within the city, the City Council will organise as part of the consultation programme a symposium on neighbourhood climate change action involving if possible partners such as the Carbon Trust, Co-operative and United Utilities."

Well, everyone and their mother is calling for Low Carbon Communities. It's the new Apple Pie. There's a Low Carbon Communities Network, the next Friends of the Earth campaign- much delayed frankly- is about cuddling up to councils and is called "Low Carbon Communities". So Beyond Green have got the branding right...

"the City Council will organise as part of the consultation programme"

And what consultation programme would that be then? It says "the", meaning applying to the whole Call to Action. If it were specifically about this catalytic action, it would be "a" consultation programme. The Council is basically breaking its promise to have a consultation process, and then expects people to continue to trust it. Extraordinary. Extraordinary that the various groups in Manchester are unable to rouse themselves to any sort of activity about this. ("Extraordinary" is a charitable description, actually)

And does the council here think of consulting with the great unwashed, the people who pay their council taxes? No, it consults with government quangos and private business. Genius.

Catalytic Action 4: Low carbon energy infrastructure

The Executive of Manchester City Council- in effect the “Cabinet” of the 96 seat elected body, has recently accepted a report called the “Call to Action.”

A London-based consultancy called “Beyond Green” wrote the report, (for £32,000 plus expenses), which commits the Council to nine “catalytic actions.”

They are:

1. World-leading neighbourhood regeneration

2. Retrofitting Manchester's civic heritage

3. A business alliance for climate change

4. Low carbon energy infrastructure

5. Low carbon communities

6. A climate-ready Local Development Framework

7. The Manchester Prize

8. Greening the City: i-Trees

9. A green airport

We here at MCFly Towers think that these sorts of things go better with consultation. While we are waiting for the Council to announce just what it is going to do on this question, we will be posting one “catalytic action” per day on the MCFly blog, with a brief analysis. We invite the people of Manchester (and heck, why not beyond) to comment on these. We will pass on your comments to the Council.

That's not to say the other parts of the report aren't worthy of comment too- it's just that we have to start somewhere, and here is as good a place as any...

Low carbon energy infrastructure

"The establishment of the right critical energy infrastructure is a vital step on the road to a low carbon economy. Manchester needs to bring together a demand-side analysis of current and future need for energy infrastructure with a supply-side analysis of the opportunities for low carbon energy generation. As described out in box 3.1, this is an evolving process involving many different partners; there will be a key role for the Greater Manchester Climate Change Agency in bringing coherence to that process in our City.

"Manchester City Council, with a range of partners including United Utilities, is supporting work by the AGMA Environment Commission to examine the commercial and technical feasibility of establishing a Manchester-wide Energy Services Company (ESCo). The model will supply low carbon and renewable energy on a strategic scale across Greater Manchester, making best use of the resources and environments that characterise different parts of the conurbation. This builds on a feasibility study undertaken for Manchester Knowledge Capital in 2007."

-snip-

"This work will be complemented by two other studies to be overseen by the Climate Change Agency into community heating and combined heat and power capacity, and renewable energy generation capacity.

"Subject to the outcomes of these studies, the City Council will support early efforts to establish an infrastructure strategy for renewable energy generation, distribution and use across the City and City-region. If necessary, the City Council will use its landholdings to accelerate the development of generation capacity and ensure that both the energy and the income such development – which is likely to be controversial generates is invested in local communities. However, in principle the establishment of a citywide ESCo or similar offers potentially the greatest single source of reduction in Manchester’s emissions – potentially up to a 30 per cent cut in the City’s total carbon footprint depending on uptake and the extent to which existing energy supplies are replaced

OK, in principle this seems sensible enough. I am not an energy expert, so I'd love to hear from other people on this.

A few obvious questions:

Manchester Knowledge Capital has been in possession of a feasibility study since 2007. What has that feasibility study been used for in 2008- a draught excluder?

What have other comparable cities in the UK and beyond done to encourage microgeneration? Did Beyond Green speak to WADE or Greenpeace or any other folks who've been banging on about this stuff for years? If so, what advice were they given? If not, why not?

“Subject to the outcome of these studies”: there's an interesting bit of wiggle room there. What outcomes of these studies might stop the council from proceeding?.

What exactly does the council think is going to be controversial? Are they planning to announce a Fusion Reactor in Fallowfield? An atomic pile in Ancoats? Something else? (I jest of course; one of the climate principles agreed last year explicitly ruled out nuclear. And we all know the climate principles are binding, oh yes...)

Again, by the council's own admission, these actions are going to have a low carbon reduction impact. The box on page 47 really does bear close attention- very few of these actions have immediate starts, and the ones that do were already going. And there are no quantified reductions.

Catalytic Action 3: Business Alliance for Climate Change

The Executive of Manchester City Council- in effect the “Cabinet” of the 96 seat elected body- has recently accepted a report called the “Call to Action.”

A London-based consultancy called “Beyond Green” wrote this report, which commits the Council to nine “catalytic actions.”

They are:

1. World-leading neighbourhood regeneration

2. Retrofitting Manchester's civic heritage

3. A business alliance for climate change

4. Low carbon energy infrastructure

5. Low carbon communities

6. A climate-ready Local Development Framework

7. The Manchester Prize

8. Greening the City: i-Trees

9. A green airport

We here at MCFly Towers think that these sorts of things go better with consultation. While we are waiting for the Council to announce just what it is going to do on this question, we will be posting one “catalytic action” per day on the MCFly blog, with a brief analysis. We invite the people of Manchester (and heck, why not beyond) to comment on these. We will pass on your comments to the Council.

That's not to say the other parts of the report aren't worthy of comment too- it's just that we have to start somewhere, and here is as good a place as any...

"If we in Manchester are to shape the city so that it is fit to grow a low carbon economy and reap a competitive and first-mover advantage from doing so, business will need to be in the vanguard. Indeed, through forums such as the 100 Months Club and activities like the Environmental Business Pledge, business is already playing an important role.

"Often, business action on climate change and sustainability focuses on efforts to reduce factory and office waste and energy use, source supplies more sustainably, and change employee behaviour (for example by providing incentives and facilities for walking and cycling to work). This kind of in-house action is critical, with many small steps adding up to major carbon savings if widely adopted and will be an important part of business action on climate change in the City.

"The City Council wants to understand business views on this Call to Action. We want to understand what specific interventions Manchester business would like to see to support the realisation of a low carbon economy, including supportive policy changes, for example. We would like to examine with business the potential for coordinated procurement initiatives by large organisations across the public and private sectors to create a demand-pull on environmental technologies in Manchester. We would like business input on the potential of climate change as a signature aspect of Manchester’s brand – as the Chicago Climate Exchange has increasingly become associated with Chicago’s international brand. The City Council would like to engage and support business leaders to take the lead on climate change action. These businesses will provide the lead for others to follow and will agree a number of stretching and specific common commitments and actions."

Which is all well and good. There will be an entirely predictable spectrum of responses to this. Friends of the Earth will cautiously welcome it, the Green Party will say that there should be more focus on regulation, rather than expecting niceness from companies. Beyond that, the more hardline socialists etc will call for nationalisation etc. etc

I hope the council is well informed on the potential limits to these sorts of voluntary schemes. There is a recent excellent book edited by Dr. Rory Sullivan that it would be worth their while to read. It's called “Corporate Responses to Climate Change.” You can read a review and an interview with Dr. Sullivan here.

Three other concerns are as follows-

1) won't this simply duplicate work of groups like “Business in the Community” and various quangos like Envirolink Northwest etc etc?

2) There is surely a real danger that the proposed conference with an internationally recognised speaker (Al Gore more likely than James Hansen, I'd guess) for later will simply add to emissions and public cynicism that the Council is doing more talking than doing.

3) There are no direct impacts on C02 reductions from this catalytic action, by the Council's own admission! (see box on page 47 of the report)