Power to the People, 100% Renewables by 2050

We are thrilled to have such strong recommendations for our report. Alan Simpson MP, special advisor to UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate calls it [2] “a road map for survival” and “the get out of jail” card for Britain and many other countries for avoiding “climate chaos”. Chee Yokeling, Director of Third World Network, says [3] “it is just what world governments need to renew their commitment to the UN Convention on Climate Change.” That alone tells us there is nothing to divide the peoples of the developed and developing world as far as renewable energies and saving the climate is concerned.

What we need is to restore power to the people in all senses of the word ‘power’, through a commitment to 100 percent renewable energies by 2050. This is realistic, much more so than the non-renewable options favoured by the UK and other governments, and much more affordable.

Renewable energy is inexhaustible energy that does not run out. Moreover, it is free; once you install your own equipment to capture it, no one can meter it, if you don’t want them to, or cut off your supply. It is in principle available to all, so there is no need to fight over it. We, the people, are in control.

Being renewable is not enough. It has to be green, which means also being environmentally friendly, healthy, safe, non-polluting, and sustainable. Sustainable needs more comment as it has been hi-jacked too often to mean just the opposite.

Being sustainable is to endure for hundreds or thousands of years like natural ecosystems, thanks to a circular economy of reciprocity and cooperation that renews and regenerates the whole [4] (The Rainbow And The Worm, ISIS publication). It is just the opposite of the dominant neo-liberal economy driven by competition and exploitation that has brought the planet and its inhabitants to the brink of irreversible catastrophe, not to mention the actual financial collapse [5] (seeFinancing Poverty, SiS 40).