Comment: Corporate Social Responsibility and Climate Change

With the recent release of the IPCC report on top of the many, many warnings on Climate Change and the effects it will have on the planet, its hard to fathom the lack of response from the business and corporate communities. The lack of an adequate response from government.

Sometimes an honest response is better than none.

Read Full Article >>

A Sense of History and Responsibility: Manchester and Climate Change

Its not uncommon for Manchester’s Leaders to evoke the city’s industrial heritage and spirit of innovation.

Manchester is the home of The (Manchester) Guardian, the first computer with memory, the first ‘nuclear-free’ city. It has a history of ‘firsts’.

Manchester is also arguably known as the first industrial city, with the advent of the cotton industry, mechanical innovation, the building of factories and a huge increase in population transforming the conurbation and the country.

Of the many things written about Manchester at the time it was described as a ‘great city rising before us as the very symbol of civilization, foremost in the march of improvement, a grand incarnation of progress.’ [Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, 1858; quoted by Briggs, Victorian Cities, 88]

But at the same time it was described ‘Earth and air seem impregnated with fog and soot. The factories extend their flanks of fouler brick one after another, bare, with shutterless windows, like economical and colossal prisons’ [Girouard, Cities and People, 257-258]

In describing Manchester as that first industrial city which influenced the world, so it can be argued that the origins of man-made Climate Change also began in this city.

This city, as much as any, needs to take ‘Climate Change’ and its effects as seriously as the global threat it is. In the same way that Manchester has historically been a technological and cultural leader, today it needs to be an environmental one.

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report's focus was to look at ways of reducing the effects of climate change. Its message is that catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards. It suggests that the transformation required to a world of clean energy is eminently affordable. The implication of this statement is that action is ‘doable’, it’s possible, if action is taken quickly.

As a central and influential organisation in the region, Manchester City Council has been notable for

• Aggressive expansion of its airport interests (Manchester Airport Group)
• Fiddling of its own carbon emission reports
• Being fined by the European Union for breaking pollution laws
• Under-resourcing of its own Manchester: A Certain Future climate change organisation

Manchester Green Party has been critical of the Council for this particularly as its actions or inaction are ultimately political decisions.

We call upon Manchester City Council to

• take IPCC report seriously
• properly resource and focus carbon and pollution reduction emission actions and environmental improvement actions so that they maximise climate improvement not economic growth
• engage fully with long-term advocates of climate change actions such as The Tyndall Centre, Dr Kevin Anderson, Manchester ClimateMonthly, Steady State Manchester, MERCi, Friends of the Earth amongst others.

 Manchester was also home of Emmeline Pankhurst the leading Suffragette. Their motto was ‘Deeds not Words’.

That is the spirit the City’s Leaders need to evoke.

Read Full Article >>

Comment: Manchester City Council's Climate Change planning failure

News that Manchester City Council is to miss its carbon emission target again  is unacceptable state of affairs especially after it was caught out for producing misleading carbon reduction figures last year.

The Council over the past few years has made great play of its plans to reduce climate emissions over the past few years with its

• 17 Principles for Tackling Climate Change
• Climate Change Call To Action Plan
• Climate Change Action Plan - 'Manchester: A Certain Future'
• Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy

It seems with all of its work producing Action Plans and Strategy documents, it has no time to do any actual work on actually reducing carbon emissions.

Given the serious effects climate change has begun to have on the country, this is dangerous behaviour.

Manchester Green Party calls for the Council to take seriously its responsibility to reduce carbon emissions as part of its duty of care for the lives and well-being of its citizens.

Read Full Article >>

Book and Photo Exhibition

26 Nov: Hard Rain: Our Headlong Collision With Nature, MMU

The photographer, Mark Edwards, is one of the few environmental communicators to have personally witnessed the global issues that are defining the 21st century.The book and photo exhibition Hard Rain is Mark Edward's latest project, and collaborates with Bob Dylan's lyric to Hard Rain. It was launched at the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2006 to huge public and critical acclaim, attracting the support and endorsement of political and environmental leaders across the world.This exhibition goes straight to the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December after it has been displayed at Manchester Metropolitan University.This event is free of charge and open to all members of the public.When: 5.30pm, Thursday 26 NovemberWhere: Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West, off Oxford Road, M15 6LLBook online at: http://hardrainmmu.eventbrite.com/

Read Full Article >>