I’ve written previously on the good work being done at the Tyndall Centre at the University of Manchester by people such as Professor Kevin Anderson.
Recently he gave a presentation to a committee of councillors at Manchester City Council on different models of growth, and in particular on the environmental impacts of good and of bad growth models.
His talk emphasised that social goods (such as jobs, welfare, food, literacy, housing, transport, civil society) can be increased without also having to have people working long hours and emitting ever-more amounts of greenhouse gases which cause climate change. Youth unemployment should be addressed by large-scale programmes to retrofit homes for better energy efficiency, and by low-carbon transport works.
Manchester City Council are reported to have received this presentation enthusiastically, and agreed to incorporate environmental indicators in the city’s overall Dashboard.
Tony Baldwinson 