Problem: We are facing ecological catastrophe and the disintegration of social cohesion.

The Solution is: Stop the burning of fossil fuels worldwide.

(What can be done locally)

• Energy is a requirement of life. Nothing can be actualised without it.
• To recreate community resilience we need energy independence.
• To allow for true democratic autonomy we need energy independence.
• To remove corruption from governance we need energy independence.
• Renewable energy technology has the advantage of being capable of allowing for decentralised energy generation.
• “The grid” is obsolete. It makes us vulnerable to controlling influences.
• The economic power of the fossil fuel industry has corrupted the political sphere to point where it is no longer fit for purpose or in any way representative of the people it purports to serve.
• We have an obligation to create community resilience in the face of the inevitable.
• What is inevitable? Ice cap melt – sea level rise – mass migration – global mean surface temperature rise – localised and international disintegration of social cohesion – resource competition – food shortages – infrastructure failures – attempts at domination by resource based monopolies (food, water, gas, oil, medicines, weapons)
• How do we prepare for these current realities and future inevitabilities?

1. Initiate a new localised energy infrastructure based on renewable energy generation, decoupled from “the grid” and managed on a “not for profit” basis.
2. Encourage and support (i.e. provide funding and resources for) research and development into new energy technologies, whilst providing security for those researchers involved in the process and creating an open source system of monitoring and supervision that prevents anything connected to the process from happening in secret. This also must happen on a “not for profit” basis.
3. Roll out an educational initiative aimed at reaching every level of the community with regard to our relationship with energy in terms of transportation, entertainment, warmth and light, food choices and consumption habits.
4. Ensure that as part of this initiative education about food dependency and food creation is included and encourage people to make the transition from perceiving money as more valuable than food to perceiving food as more valuable than money.
5. Create an accessible means for every household to participate and benefit from localised food production. Free up urban green spaces for this purpose and employ experienced and informed individuals and organisations to manage, maintain and supervise these spaces.
6. Increase efforts to reduce and eliminate food waste from the commercial sector by the creation of food surplus management teams who will work in partnership with all local growers, wholesalers and retailers to intercept food surpluses at the point of disposal and redistribute to the community on a “free at the point of need” basis. Organic surpluses that cannot be consumed by humans can be consumed by animals. Organic waste that cannot be consumed by animals can be composted and thereby provide “fuel” for localised food growing initiatives. The potential for energy generation from organic waste also exists and a large scale “hot box” composting initiative could be considered that draws heat from the process. This heat energy could then be used to either generate electricity or piped directly into public access buildings and institutions (universities, hospitals, schools, hostels, court houses, police stations, community centres etc etc)
7. Identify and allocate land for afforestation within the city and county, implementing a large scale carbon sequestration program that must consider the options for dynamic carbon dioxide removal systems – e.g. Forest creation and management for long term sequestration and bio-diversity. The use of bamboo as both a short term carbon sequester and a resource to replace plastic for end use disposable or short life-time products, the reintroduction of hemp as a resource for nutrition, carbon sequestration, medicinal by products, textile manufacturing and industrial scale construction.
8. The afforestation and localised food production initiatives could be integrated with the right input from expertise from the fields of permaculture and low impact agriculture. Forest farms could be created with a focus less on financial profitability and more on the value of the produce to the community. “Not for profit” models must be explored in all of these contexts.
9. A culture of community inclusion and responsibility can be created within a relatively short time frame with the right educational initiatives and the appropriate funding.
10. Declare a climate emergency: This is an essential first step towards implementing such initiatives. The declaration needs to be clear, understandable, unequivocal and science based. The true nature of the threat posed to our communities by the ecological collapse of Earth systems, and the political dependence on external actors within the national and international contexts, need to be understood in accessible terms. The existential threat from both environmental changes to the bio-sphere and political instability within a global context is real, current and increasing exponentially. This needs to be understood by all stakeholders within the community.
11. The creation of “Peoples Assemblies” and “Community Moots” is the vehicle for inclusion and participation with this process and needs to be made attractive and incentivised rather than enforced. People from all and every walk of life must have an accessible means of participation with these decision making bodies. The power of policy making authority needs to be shared among the people, rather than coalesced around a few individuals. Provision must be provided to offer inclusion and participation to even the hardest to reach sectors of the community (e.g. the socially excluded – homeless and rough sleepers, elderly and alone, house bound, prisoners and convicts, those in residential care, asylum seekers and refugees, people in hospital, the armed forces etc etc)
12. Industry & transport. There needs to be radical shift away from fossil fuels in both of these sectors.
13. Integrated solutions for industry need to be introduced that provide businesses the opportunity to maintain their productivity, save money and power themselves more responsibly. Polluters must be regulated and if necessary penalised, whilst preventing them from passing incurred costs from such punitive measures onto the consumer of their services or products. Pollution must become unprofitable and the means to continue in business in less, or non, polluting ways must be made accessible to them. Solutions present themselves when we consider the application of localised energy infrastructure on a “not for profit” basis - or when we encourage, and if necessary subsidise, the switch for businesses to become free from “the grid” by implementing their own energy generation facilities and resources. The key here is energy independence on as localised a level as possible. Wherever the potential exists for any commercial entity to meet it's own energy requirements at the point of need then expertise and resources need to be invested to enable them to do so at minimal cost to themselves. Such investment will pay off in incalculable terms in the context of creating a culture of community resilience and energy awareness. Planning regulations need to be reassessed and relaxed for any localised renewable energy initiative.
14. Public transport should be publicly owned and also managed on a “not for profit” basis. As we attempt to discourage wasteful and polluting fossil fuel based transport methods we need to offer viable alternatives that are accessible to all sectors of the community. The re-introduction of city trams systems needs to be considered. The viability of implementation of hydrogen powered public transport needs to be assessed. A public bicycle scheme that gives free access at the point of need (such as in place in the city of London) needs to be considered. School transportation schemes that involve parents and education workers that reduce the use of cars at peak times need to be developed. An exclusion zone within city limits for all unnecessary fossil fuel vehicles needs to be considered.
15. A policy of divestment of any direct or indirect investment in fossil fuel industries and arms industries is essential. The geo-political and ethical implications of these entwined industries cannot be overstated. The ecological, political, socio-economic impact on the life of this planet from these profit engines has always been, and continues to be, destructive, corrupting and coercive. Any policy decision makers have a duty of care over the lives their decisions impact upon. This cannot be dismissed in the context of financial investment without which these ecocidal  and homicidal industries could not sustain their business models. The transition towards a global culture that values and respects life, abhors war and protects diversity of life and culture necessitates a radical shift in attitudes. 
16. Nuclear power, along with any new fossil fuel infrastructure or extraction, must not even be considered in the context of responsible stewardship of the Earth. These practices are not safe, sustainable or acceptable.