Big Climate Connection

Text of my talk at Big Climate Connection in Uckfield on 20th May 2011.

Speakers:

• Charles Hendry MP
• Darren Shirley: Sustainable Homes Campaign Manager, WWF UK
• Mike Grenville, Transition Network and local activist
• John Lanchbery, Head of International Climate Change Policy, RSPB
• Dr Sarah Wykes, CAFOD

For more info on the Big Climate Connection visit www.thebigconnection.org

Climate change and peak oil are not two separate issues: one is the connected to the other. They interact with each other in ways that are difficult to predict. These problems can not be solved in isolation. By concentrating on one we may worsen others.

The days of easy oil are over. Even the IEA say Peak Oil, the point of maximum global production has already happened. Petrol prices are no longer cheap. Yet governments and the petroleum industry are in denial

If we continue with the fantasy that we can keep going with business as usual, as the reality of Peak Oil grows, it will usher in a whole new wave of fixes even worse than oil that are lined up to replace it:
- coal to liquids,
- tar sands extraction,
- bio-fuels,

Peak Oil puts a mirror up to a community:
• where is the resilience?
• How quickly did we find ourselves fighting over bread and milk when the snow interrupted deliveries?
• How much more do petrol prices need to rise before you can’t afford to drive to work?

The government favours centralised energy supply.

Nuclear for example; the impact on many future generations is ignored for a few decades of electricity. Even before the Fukushima crisis, nuclear energy was not competitive in free market economies without significant government support.

Just this week the Energy and Climate Change Committee said that hidden subsidies to nuclear will be awarded through long-term government-supported contracts to supply energy.

Our neighbour Germany is showing that it is very possible to get large penetrations of renewable energy
while phasing out nuclear energy by 2020. Given the political will, it can be done.

In Lewes, OVESCO – an Off shoot of Transition Lewes
Is putting 545 solar PV panels on the roof of Harvey’s Brewery. 200 local people have invested earning them 4% interest : 50 people invested £250 100 between £250-1000 and 50 – £1000+

More importantly they mainly see it as
• playing their part in making carbon reduction happen;
• and investing in the future of their children.

With £258,000 already invested They need just £50,000 to complete the order For it to be working by end of July
before the Govt reduces the FIT rate from 32.9p/kwh -> 19p/kwh.

In Forest Row, Transition is working with the Farm Coop
On a 50kwh project, half the size of the Lewes project,
a limit that is also up for government review next spring.

Another way that can help makes such schemes viable
Is the Enterprise Investment Scheme. It gives a 20% off set against tax to investments. Next year this will increase to 30% but will be removed for renewable energy.

Uncertainty is the problem for the supply chain. Community groups run by volunteers and low paid staff need time to get going.

The government needs to find ways to make it viable
for the community to be involved with local renewable energy
• It reduces carbon,
• boosts local jobs,
• and builds resilience

We need to face the facts: We cannot go on pretending
that there are multiple planets to plunder. No one it seems wants to face up to a connection between oil at $147/barrel and the economic collapse of 2008. The Government’s strategy to escape recession is growth which will not work in the face of rising triple digit oil prices.

In an analysis of our energy future, Shell saw 2 options:

Blueprint: a planned transition to a low carbon society

Scramble: where we carry on regardless and fight each other for the last rays of ancient sunlight – fossil fuels. Sadly, for the most part, this is the option by default we are taking.

We can live without oil; our ancestors lived without it
for thousands of years.

We are all in Transition to a low carbon future although not all of us realise it yet. The Transition Movement is a community response to the challenges we face. It intends to unleash the creative genius of the local community to design their own pathways through energy descent, looking at all our key systems - food, energy, economics, transport, health etc. And they are doing it in ways that are practical, playful, cooperative, engaging and mindful of the wider questions of biodiversity, social justice and economic equity.

We recognise that it is a huge social experiment. What we are convinced of is that If we wait for governments, it’ll be too little, too late if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little, but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.

It is time to ignore the gods of economic growth who destroy the planet in our name. It is time to be concerned about real wealth:

• local food from healthy soils;
• localised renewable energy
• and initiatives that enhance community resilience.

The key is real government support to empower communities.