A ‘D’ for Denial, not Disclosure
At a full council meeting that was unfortunately cut short on Thursday 21 October, when asked about how the Green administration and the council were measuring climate transition risks and mitigating their impacts on the residents of the city, the leader of the council mounted an attack on factual claims the council scored a D in the 2020 Carbon Disclosure Project submission.
He did not answer the question and explain what mitigation (if any) was taking place.
Perhaps he needs to respond in writing as the relevance of this will become clearer if you read on.
While the Greens generally do not like taking responsibility for anything, they have pledged to residents that Brighton and Hove will transition to being carbon neutral by 2030 and must be judged on how they are performing in relation to that promise.
The assumption in the council that the transition is about central government legislation alone is misplaced.
The council cannot expect the centre to offer the funds to local government and at the same time continue to hold the risk, to relieve the Greens of the burden of responsibility.
Whoever takes climate action will end up with a lot of transition risk to manage and mitigate. For example, we will still need to produce electric cars if we manage to limit global warming to 1.5C tomorrow.
So, how this council measures transition risks and how it will manage the impact of these transition risks on the city’s residents is important.
Benchmarking the Greens’ performance
The Carbon Disclosure Project, the CPD, works with cities to motivate them to disclose their impacts on the environment and natural resources and take action to reduce negative impacts.
The CDP uses a scoring methodology to incentivise cities to measure and manage environmental impacts through participation in a Cities programme.
The CDP recognises and rewards the highest-scoring cities and there are four scoring bands that cities can fall into: Disclosure (D), Awareness (C), Management (B) and Leadership (A).
In order to progress from one level to the next, cities must pass the threshold at each scoring band. For example, in order to achieve a score within Awareness (C or C-) a city must receive enough points within Disclosure in order to pass the Disclosure threshold first, before receiving a score in Awareness.
Brighton and Hove’s submission did not pass the Disclosure threshold in 2020 and therefore achieved only a D, the lowest grade.
Cities, like Brighton and Hove, which submitted a response to the full Cities 2019 Questionnaire will have received all of the following
- One overall letter score indicating the overall level of climate disclosure and performance as assessed by the information provided in the response. We know Brighton and Hove received a D.
- One Adaptation letter score indicating the level of climate disclosure and performance as assessed by the information provided in the response to questions falling under Adaptation. We do not know what the Brighton and Hove score was.
- One Mitigation letter score indicating the level of climate disclosure and performance as assessed by the information provided in the response to questions falling under Mitigation. This is an important score because it tells us what action the council is taking to mitigate the impact of climate action on residents, eg, the impact of the seafront cycle lane on disabled groups. We do not know what the Brighton and Hove score was in this case.
An explanation of the characteristics of the Disclosure band on the CDP’s website says the following: A city in the Disclosure scoring band has just started the journey of understanding and reporting on climate impacts. These cities understand the value of collecting data to drive climate action but may not have structures or resources in place to obtain the necessary information.
This is a damning indictment on where the Green administration has failed but it also presents an opportunity for more clarity moving forward.
The council’s D grade is a key indication that its current “structure” – the Carbon Neutral Members Working Group which disperses responsibility and accountability – is not working and needs to be revisited.
Councillor Samer Bagaeen speaks for the Conservative group on climate change and the Carbon Neutral Member Working Group.
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Who can be surprised NO EIA with the closure of Madeira Drive, (and then reinstatement of one lane), NO EIA on the temporary cycle lane on the OSR despite calls for it back in the middle of last year, NO EIA for Valley Gardens Phase 3. We get a lot of ideas that they claim are Green but are not factually supported. I wonder why?
There is a pattern forming here…
The Greens lie , deceive and then deny. That is their MO.
More and more people are waking up and realising how inept and incompetent the Greens are. They are unfit to run Brighton.
A full blown provable falsehood. Fancy falling for the fact that this article is one long like from start to finish, and the things he talks about didn’t actually happen.
You’d actually take a lesson in climate change from a Tory? Good grief.
Er, check out the Carbon Disclosure Project website!
Year Program Status Score
2021 Cities 2021 Submitted Not Available
2020 Cities 2020 Submitted Not Available
2019 Cities 2019 No Response Not Available
2018 CDP Cities 2018 No Response Not Scored
2017 CDP Cities 2017 Not Submitted Not Available
2016 CDP Cities 2016 Not Submitted Not Available
2015 CDP Cities 2015 Not Submitted Not Available
I read somewhere that there is a local petition to get rid of the Greens, but cannot locate it online. Does anyone have any information on it?
Hi Hove Guy.
Here is the petition (change the word ‘dot’ to a ‘.’)
https://www.change dot org/p/brighton-city-council-stop-the-greens-destruction-of-brighton-hove
If you watch the webcast of the meeting on 21st Oct. You can see it being presented at 54 minutes in https://aisapps.sonicfoundry dot com/AuditelScheduler/Player/Index/?id=22e61fd9-b97f-4adc-99ed-ddad4eb95d85&presID=a9d864738ada454596a7fba4bdaa53f91d
It’s called the Council elections, and they take place every four years. Or are you so clueless about local politics, Green politics and the city generally that you didn’t know that? Words fail me.
Hi Hove Guy.
Here is the petition (change the word ‘dot’ to a ‘.’)
https://www.change dot org/p/brighton-city-council-stop-the-greens-destruction-of-brighton-hove
If you watch the webcast of the meeting on 21st Oct. You can see it being presented at 54 minutes in https://aisapps.sonicfoundry dot com/AuditelScheduler/Player/Index/?id=22e61fd9-b97f-4adc-99ed-ddad4eb95d85&presID=a9d864738ada454596a7fba4bdaa53f91d
Thank you.
Signed as well.
Not all of us are convinced that EV vehicles are greener than unleaded petrol vehicles over a full-lifetime comparison including replacement parts. Surely it’s time to revisit water and air-powered vehicles, except presumably there’s no profit to be made from those.
No one I know with either solar panels or a heat pump is happy with their performance. What is the green benefit to Brighton and Hove of Rampion, except to spoil the sea vista? No one seems to know.
Nothing is being evaluated either as a product or as a scheme and this needs to change.
And let’t not forget Brighton and Hove has one of the worst recycling rates in the country.
Yes we need transparency and accountability from our Green Council but there is also an urgent need for back to basics and before worrying about anything at a higher level.
Suddenly the Tories ( the pumping sewage into rivers party ) have discovered something called the Carbon Disclosure Project a charity which Brighton & Hove Council may or may not have signed up to in 2013 and now it’s really important. What it does ? Who they are ? . who knows ?
Anyway
Here’s what they say about Brighton& Hove Council
Year Program Status Score
2021 Cities 2021 Submitted Not Available
2020 Cities 2020 Submitted Not Available
2019 Cities 2019 No Response Not Available
2018 CDP Cities 2018 No Response Not Scored
2017 CDP Cities 2017 Not Submitted Not Available
2016 CDP Cities 2016 Not Submitted Not Available
2015 CDP Cities 2015 Not Submitted Not Available
Absolutely damning