Greater Manchester’s Environment Plan 2019–2024

4 min readMay 1, 2019

Chapter 2: Manchester Declares A Climate Emergency

An in-depth analysis of city region’s environment policy and where it falls short, presented in a series of 10 chapters related in the style of a fictional leader using language the crisis calls for #TellTheTruth

This is what it would sound like if our leaders talked as if climate change was as real and as urgent as the science is telling us.

Hi everyone.

I know you want me to tell you it’s going to be alright.

That we’ve got this.

Truth is we haven’t.

It’s bad. It’s worse than bad.

We are today declaring an emergency that will require all our combined efforts to tackle.

It’s the biggest crisis we’ve faced as a planet, a species, a country, a city.

It won’t be easy.

I don’t know if we can do it.

But I hope you agree we have to try.

And if anywhere can do it, Manchester can with our community-minded spirit, creative clever people and our track record for social justice.

Because this is not just a declaration — it’s a mass appeal for help.

I’m going to set out what each of us is going to need to do, embrace and pay for one way or another — within the next 10 years;

It is likely there will be even tougher impacts to come because — these measures, challenging as they are — only get us half way there.

But I want you to know as much as I know right now so you and your family can plan for it.

Some of the dates seem far in the future — 2038 is 19 years away — but in reality we’re going to have to start NOW if we’re to do it all in a manageable way.

I’m going to spell it out as much as I can so we can start talking about how we handle it together.

And hopefully, we’ll all find it possible to go further, faster.

It’s going to affect all the areas of our lives so I will talk about them as realistically as I can so they make sense to you.

I wish I could say there were the billions of pounds we need to pay for all this set aside — there isn’t, not yet at least.

So this is about all of us figuring out how to slot this into our lives, and yes to pay for what we can if we can, before that aid money turns up.

And to begin to use this plan as the way you make decisions about the future, including your choices as consumers and voters.

And to plan what to do if that money does not turn up…

Please read all the information packs here carefully because they will have significant impacts on your lives and your wallets.

Our homes I Our energy supply I Our cars I Our transport strategy

Our food and waste I Our businesses I Our media I Our natural world

Sorry we don’t have the money to create a much simpler, clearer mass public information campaign.

I’ve today launched an appeal for people to step up to help with that.

Because this is going to need people to go far beyond what’s seen as normal today.

This is all we are able to share for now.

Please go back to your family and communities and talk about what this means.

And think about what you will have to start demanding from others — such as business, transport operators, fossil fuel companies, the government, your community — and each other.

We will make a further public information announcements as and when we can.

In the meantime I wish we were holding drop-in sessions to hear what you have to say.

And citizen assemblies to help brainstorm ideas to solve this crisis.

But that’s not part of the plan at the moment either.

I’m not sure why.

Can anyone help?

This page is part of a series critiquing and presenting the Greater Manchester Environment Plan, in the style of fictional leader Sandy Turnham.

All measures and facts and descriptions are accurate as far as my understanding but some artistic licence has been taken with tone in order to #TellTheTruth.