Civil society leaders call for a new energy future

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.

One of the sites the civil society leaders visited in Germany

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.

Today is the inaugural meeting of a new group of civil society champions who have been brought together by The Co-operative and its partners Forum for the Future and Carbon Leapfrog to act as renewable energy ambassadors. Late last year the group, which includes leading figures from the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), The Church of England and the National Trust, visited Germany to see for themselves examples of successful community renewable schemes. Today, they are meeting Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to launch their vision for community energy. You can see the full vision and commitment here.

Representing millions, these organisations are seeking to unlock the potential for community renewable energy in the UK. They see the benefits - and the dilemma. Either we carry on scraping the barrel, seeking out evermore difficult-to-reach sources of oil and gas. Or, we embrace a new energy future, harnessing the UK’s vast natural resources of wind, water and solar power.

Simultaneously, The Co-operative Group launches its Community Energy Challenge, which will offer half a dozen communities support to develop renewable energy schemes that involve and benefit local people, change the way we think about energy, and inspire others to take action. Together these initiatives can play an important role in taking community energy mainstream.

There's no doubt about that doing community energy in the UK at the moment is hard work. But it brings rewards for those who put in the effort. Co-operatives UK recently produced a briefing on the state of play in the UK. Co-operatively owned energy generation is a vibrant and growing sector. The first co-operatively owned wind turbines, at Baywind in Cumbria, started turning in 1997. Since then, over 7,000 individual investors have ploughed over £16 million into community-owned renewable energy. They were the early adopters. Find out more about the Community Energy Challenge and some of the projects it's helped get off the ground in the film below. 

Clean energy currently contributes about 8% of the UK’s electricity supply, amongst the lowest in Europe. Yet, the UK is lucky to have some of the best renewable resources in the world with enough wind, wave and tidal resources to meet both domestic energy needs and export energy to other countries.

It's time for a clean energy revolution. Take the challenge. Join the revolution.

• Find out more about the Germany tour and the vision here. 
• The Co-operative Group, Co-operatives UK and Forum for the Future are holding a joint event on February 15th to showcase how co-operatives can reboot the economy. Find out more and apply for a place here.
• See Forum for the Future's letter to Edward Davey, new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, here