Tynwald members will today be asked to once again agree that we are in the midst of a climate change emergency.

They were meant to do it last month but, in a way that only Tynwald members can, they managed to delay formally agreeing on something that they all pretty much seemed to agree on.

At the May sitting they couldn’t approve any version of a motion tabled by Daphne Caine (Garff) that acknowledged the climate change emergency.

This was despite the fact that, in a move definitely not intended to steal Mrs Caine’s thunder, Chief Minister Howard Quayle had announced a few days earlier that indeed there was a climate change emergency and that he planned to do something about it.

Although Mrs Caine’s original motion acknowledged the climate change emergency and said the government should allocate the necessary resources to take action - which did not seem that far removed from what Mr Quayle had said - the government decided it needed to be a much less succinct statement and Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot tabled an amendment welcoming the already announced planned introduction of a climate change bill and recognised the new target of zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Add to that two other amendments - both of which also acknowledged the climate change emergency but suggested different approaches to tackling it - and Tynwald was at its best, by not managing to get anything finished.

The problem was that the vote on Mr Boot’s amendment was split with the House of Keys in favour and the Legislative Council against. That gave Mr Boot the right to bring it back this month for a combined vote.

Unfortunately, that meant Tynwald couldn’t deal with any of the other amendments of the original motion. So, despite everyone probably agreeing there was a climate change emergency, we have had to wait for a month before members can actually approve any motion.

Still, you can’t rush these things. It’s only the planet.

In many ways - despite the late addition of extra anti money laundering and countering terrorism finances regulations to those already on the order paper - round two of the climate change voting will be the highlight of the agenda for today’s sitting.

While there are some interesting reports attached to the agenda, they’re not actually due for debate yet.

We will have statements on the future role of the Tynwald Commissioner for Administration and the ’smart services framework’, both of which we understand Sir David Attenborough is very concerned about.

Considering this is the penultimate Tynwald sitting of the parliamentary year, the question paper is relatively light, perhaps because environment conscious Tynwald members are wary of generating too much hot air.*

Subjects to be raised on the floor of Tynwald include what the system is for patients needing treatment at Clatterbridge, waste and recycling, enhanced salary packages in the public sector, fairy houses, increases in car park charges, the storage of silt from Peel harbour and quite a few queries following the BBC’s latest public relations triumph over TV licences.

Questions for written answer include government recruitment and public sector workforce numbers, more on the Sefton Group loans, bullying in schools, the whereabouts of electric vehicle charging points and, rather neatly, a little about climate change.

*We’re fairly certain we’ve used the environment/hot air in Tynwald witticism before, but if they can recycle their agendas then we can recycle our previews.

To see the Isle of Man Climate Change Coalition’s view, see the letters page in this week’s Isle of Man Examiner, which is in the shops now.