Community Energy Blog
Last week saw the third of our "Low Carbon Councillors" events - run in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and supported by SCEN.
Like the first two events hosted by Bristol City Council and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, we were warmly welcomed by the London Energy Partnership team at the GLA in London as well as by the enthusiastic locally elected councillors to look at how they can drive the low carbon agendas forward in their communities and boroughs.
The need for these events have come about from the stark reality that in planning for 2050 energy scenarios, a great deal rests on the shoulders of the policy makers and locally elected leaders of today. Holmgren for example is just one of a number of academics who has suggested several future energy scenarios: with the best cases being that either technological innovation has provided sufficiently abundant alternatives to oil and other fossil fuels to enable a continued global socio-economic existence, or that no convenient oil equivalent has been found but society has had enough time to adapt to a more localised, energy efficient way of life before oil is completely depleted. The worst case scenario on the other hand is that oil decline is swift, climate change is increasingly destructive, planning has been inadequate, the market economy has effectively collapsed and no usable infrastructure exists to meet basic human needs. As extreme as these scenarios sound, both are entirely possible depending on what we do now. It's essential therefore, that our local leaders are knowledgeable and capable of making effective and long term decisions based on the mass of academic clout and warnings which are out there.
Some of the councillors who attended the events felt concerned about the mixed messages of commitment from government and so hopefully the news yesterday that David Cameron overruled the scare mongering from BIS and decided to accept the Committee on Climate Change's recommendations for the fourth carbon budget will have cheered them a bit. This time last year, Cameron committed to make his government the ‘greenest ever' and whilst there have been positive steps by way of the Natural Environment White Paper, the set up of the Green Investment bank and the further ‘greening' of the Green Deal', there is still masses to do.
Through measures set out in the Localism Bill communities should have much more opportunity to be proactive in setting low carbon planning and sustainability targets but currently as the Bill stands, the duty to consider climate change only applies to the preparation of Local Development Frameworks and NOT to neighbourhood planning! There is also a need for the existing duty on planning and climate change to be strengthened and an increased obligation for local authorities to ensure a direct join up between planning provisions and the Climate Change Act. The Planning and Climate Change Coalition (led by the Town and Country Planning Association and Friends of the Earth) have put forth potential amendments to try and address these omissions. If they're not changed and the Bill goes though as is, then the pressure on our elected representatives to do the right and ‘green' thing under the General Power of competence will be greater than ever.
Kate Hathway
I once read that we didn't move out of the Stone Age because we ran out of stones! Surely then, moving on from a post industrial carbon-heavy age is a no brainer when everyday, we see the devastating results of climate change. What struck me whilst visiting a plethora of projects and people in Europe as part of my ‘Community Power Empowers' study was that once individuals had made up their minds to embrace cleaner living (usually as a result of excellent marketing and incentives by public authorities and energy companies) - it wasn't all that bad! There weren't (and aren't) the massive sacrifices that everyone is either scared of or in denial about. Led by intelligent strategic energy planning whilst embracing a large section of the population and enough hand-holding, people can really change how they think, how services operate, and in general, how people go about their day-to day lives! Why and how? Because at the end of the day the majority of us act like sheep - it's true, just attend any conference and you'll see it (and be one) for yourself.
Like the ‘slow food' movement, there has to be a ‘slowing up' movement to take stock of what's really important to allow our fragile little planet's human population survive on it. Economics shouldn't ever come before environment and society and sadly that will only be realised when every leader in the world wakes up! Whilst I won't go into all the Gaia theory stuff, it's worth us remembering that we're making a right mess of things. Basic standard grade geography classes tells us that the Amazon Rainforest are the lungs of the earth and without them - well you don't need much more that standard grade geography to work out where we'd be without air! The world over, land clearing for pasture by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of resources continues, and much faster than any real regeneration can take place.
So what's all this got to do with sheep - and why is acting like a sheep a good thing in my opinion? Well, my friend has a nice bike and they like cycling to work because it's more pleasant than being stuck in the car in lots of traffic - well I do too now. Oh, and I have another friend who thinks local organic veg tastes much better and supports local businesses - aaah, I might give that a try also. You see! Making intelligent decisions at all levels might then, at long last, rub off on everyone!
It's not, or shouldn't be about ‘them and us' - for example, the energy giants versus the one horse wonder wind turbine owner - there's room for everyone (oh and that's a bit like the biodiversity on our planet!).
Pulling into beautiful Tallinn on a very sunny morning after a hearty breakfast on the ferry seemed like the ideal way to arrive into a country and armed with my three Estonian words, I was ready to talk about windfarms (which I didn`t know the Estonian word for)!
Estonia has set itself above average targets for renewable energy production by 2020 (25% of overall energy and currently it's at around 1.5%) and although there's optimisim that the targets can be met; there are also huge concerns around finance to deliver and overall public acceptance of wind turbines (which they hope will deliver approx 25% of overall demands). Based in Tallinn, I met with a number of organisations who are paving the way towards sustainability. Jann Tepp of the Estonian Wind Power Association explained that they had municipalities who were keen to work with the community in developing joint wind projects, and a possible model by which the communities could finance their shares in the developments, were by offsetting guarantee against their mortgages.
Below - old meets new! The old style windmills still play a valuable role in many parts of Europe
Fossil Fuel Free Kritianstad and Destination Gotland!
Sad not to have seen one of Denmark`s famous district heating systems in action, it was time to continue my journey over to southern Sweden. First stop was Kristianstad, (the nearly) fossil fuel free municipality in the Region of Skäne which has a population of approx 77,000. The region has some of the best agricultural land in Europe so it's little surprise that they've honed in on the bio energy business. So much so that they've won around 6 national and European awards in the last few years for their committment to developing their renewables.
Below right, the University of Gotland is sustainable architecture at its best, with pumps taking sea water from the Baltic to cool the building down in the warm summer months (though it's already a bit cool for my liking!!)
Visit to the Danish Energy Agency
I was very fortunate to get a meeting with Henrik Christiansen, Head of Section for Bioenergy, and hear about Denmark's energy plans for the next 10 years or so. In Henrik's mind, no matter how sophisticated the research and technology becomes everything must be based on "savings, savings, savings" and he never grows tired of telling the thousands of delegations which come through the Agency's doors a clear message for them to push at the Climate Convention in Copenhagen this December.