Greater Manchester Environment Plan 2019–2024
Footnotes
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
Annotations from previous chapters.
(1) Sometimes the shorthand ‘climate change’ is used to describe the impacts humans are having on earth, but in reality climate is only one way we are destroying our planet, hence the term ecological breakdown, some others being;- habitat loss, species loss, soil degradation, ice caps melting, oceans acidifying, pollution of air and sea, resource depletion.
(2) There have been a few articles in the aftermath of the GM Environment Plan launch at the 2019 Green Summit though it went unreported nationally: the Manchester Evening News published a long article but without analysis; there was this upbeat view from Paul McNamee of the Green Alliance; the GM climate groups were unimpressed and published a list of demands to go further, faster (also handed to delegates arriving at the summit (*)); there was this depressing assessment from a veteran campaigner, and another voiced hopes on how the Manchester campaign scene might change as a result; there were these thoughts on what was missing from an anthropologist, and I still find this reflection on the 2018 event, a most illuminating insight into the political wrangling behind the scenes.
(*) full disclosure — I campaign with those groups and helped hand out literature — I both believe the Green Plan is a commendable step forward and at the same time nowhere near enough.
(3) I do not believe anyone is willfully lying — far from it. Instead I believe this is a mistake of omission and of tone, of failing to convey the full facts, or where responsibility lies, of what we need from government, policy makers and big business. Of failing to tell it like it is so citizens can begin to properly demand action from those who have the greatest ability to effect change.
Above all, this should have been a rallying cry that put people on the spot.
(4) Retrofit background information from Carbon Coop
(5) Data from Department for Business Energy and Industry’s Energy in the UK in 2018 report
(6) The executive summary of Transport for the North strategy states its primary objective as purely economic:
‘Overall productivity in the North still trails behind the UK average. For the last 30 years, the North’s economic value per person (measured as GVA) has been consistently around 15% below the average for the rest of the UK. Most recent data reveals that gap has widened further, with the economic value (GVA) per person in the North now 18% below the UK average. The widening gap can be attributed to the North generally experiencing slower GVA growth rates over the last decade compared to the UK average)….
…The fundamental challenge for the North’s economy is to improve the economic interaction between the key economic assets and clusters of the North to improve the sharing of knowledge, supply chains, resources, and innovation to drive agglomeration benefits and productivity.
…To realise the benefits of agglomeration and economic mass, the North requires faster, more efficient, reliable and sustainable journeys on the road and rail networks’
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.
3. Our homes and the energy we use
5. Our cars and how we get around
7. Our food and the waste we create
8. Our businesses and their responsibility
