Justin Woolford of The Change Co.,
on behalf of The Co-operative, introduces the inaugural meeting of a
new group of civil society champions who today launch their vision for
community energy in the UK with Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change. The group has been brought together by The
Co-operative, Forum for the Future and Carbon Leapfrog and coincides
with The Co-operative's launch of their new Community Energy Challenge.
It's the UN Year of Co-operatives and in the UK, things are starting to happen. The week before last, the Prime Minister announced the Government's intention to simplify the law around co-operatives.
Today, a coalition of civil society leaders representing over 12
million members launch a vision for community energy in the UK. The
first, intended to make it as easy to set up shop as a co-operative as
it is to start any other form of business, is about community
empowerment. The second, designed to help kick-start a clean energy
revolution across the UK, is about community power.
Whether we realise it or not, our communities are at an energy
crossroads. And if we don't step up now and grasp the opportunity to
shape our own energy futures in a turbine-hugging embrace, someone else
(big oil and big gas) will do it for us. The choice is clear. Either we
allow out-of-town prospectors to 'frack' around with our landscape and drill for shale gas, or we join our friends in Sussex saying we won't be druv - and maybe, just maybe, build a frack free future.
But make no mistake, this is about much more than just a green
climate-friendly future - it's about 'energy democracy': a changed
relationship between people and energy, from one where we are at the
mercy of large profit-making energy providers and the vagaries of the
market, to one where we control, generate and benefit from our own
energy supply.
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| photo by KaiChanVong |
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