This Rogues Gallery is the Council's Climate Change Select Committee.

I've got the afternoon off tomorrow (Thursday 24th) for a bit of personal admin, as the army calls it, and after that's all done, as a service to the people of Bristol, I'm thinking about popping in to the next meeting of this august body (14:00-16:00). Admittedly, I could just go home and use the excellent Webcasting service, but I've heard rumours that you can scarf free tea and sandwiches if you blag your way into the Lord Mayor's inner sanctum.

The order of the day: Save the Planet by stopping all that horrid economic growth, obviously. (Who could possibly want any more of that?). But trying to be more specific, I've got no idea what purpose this committee serves, other than to give the members the opportunity to say "I'm tackling Climate Change" while striking a dramatic pose.

The Work Programme for the committes says they will be considering Energy Efficiency of Council Houses (surely a matter for the Physical Environment Committee), Planning Issues (surely a matter for the Development Control Committees) and promoting walking and cycling (surely a matter for the Transport Scrutiny Committee). So what have they been up to?

Within Bristol, current activity has focused on supporting the growing Environmental Technology Sector including through the Bristol Environmental Technology Sector (BETS) network and promoting the objectives of the Green Capital initiative to local businesses. The BETS network is developing well and has produced an Action Plan for 2008-09 covering the themes of Networking and Communication, External Promotion and Inward Investment, and Workspace and Cluster Development. Examples of activity include themed networking events, an Expo and Conference in June 2008, and inward investment and business development activities.

That would be "nothing", then.

No doubt they all mean well, but really - what's the point? Our Government (no - not Parliament, I mean the real one) has decreed 15% of domestic energy will come from renewable sources by 2020. This top-down energy planning will probably do the job of reducing carbon emissions, albeit this ambitious policy does come with a few minor side effects. A typical British household will end up paying £10.00 a week extra for their household electricity.

Now, if we're all going to be paying an extra £500 quid a year for our domestic energy because of national level attempts to "tackle climate change", it seems a bit excessive to start gilding the lily by adding more and more control and reduction measures at local level, particularly when we're already paying an eye-wateringly high council tax bill.

I suppose it's all fairly harmless. The members of this Select Committee don't get any extra cash above their Basic Allowance of £11,000. The officers involved are all operating at the boundaries of productive employment anyway, so the marginal loss of their time is pretty irrelevant. It's probably better than having them roaming the streets.

If anyone fancies playing some buzzword bingo (you can play along at home) here's a player's card for you:

Bingo Card

Pick two rows and two columns - a modest prize will be awarded to the winner as verified from the webcast, to consist of a carbon offset certificate entitling you to hold your breath for ten minutes as a means of dramatically reducing your carbon emmissions and thus your impact on Mother Earth.