Inequalities drive *and are driven by* the climate crisis. We can't disentangle the two. If in doubt, I find it helps to think about it visually (excuse the very quick and rubbish graphic - better ones definitely exist)

Had some fun this morning giving evidence to the UK Parliament Scottish Affairs Committee on GB Energy, just transition and community ownership, including getting the phrase “proud Forfar loon” onto parliamentary record. Have a swatch here: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

This creates more value for communities through higher financial returns than benefit funds, and helps upskill community orgs in e.g. project management, decarbonisation etc. It also builds stronger support for local projects and the wider clean power mission, speeding up renewable rollout.

How does it work? In short: a developer starts planning a new wind farm, local community says “we’d like some of that”, pair work together to finance, build and govern the project and its returns. Community might own e.g. 1 of 10 turbines or a 10/20/30% overall share.

One way to do this is through shared ownership. Although not the ‘gold standard’ of public or full community ownership, shared ownership enables communities to have a more direct, lower risk stake in the ownership, governance and profits of renewable energy projects.

Here’s what was included on energy in #Budget2024. Frustratingly, nowhere near enough on supporting people with still-high bills this winter. We desperately need sustainable action here - the human, health, social and economic costs are already astronomical (and spiralling!).

Interesting that UK media never framed austerity, privatisation, decimated public services & living standards, pollution, subsidised fossil fuel profits etc as "class war" - all enacted by successive govts to serve their own interests, at the vast expense of working class people.