9CCG conference told climate action needs to empower Cumnock and Doon Valley communities
Professor Matthew Hanon
A sustainable energy policy professor has urged Cumnock and Doon Valley communities to work collectively to unlock strategic investment opportunities to help accelerate community wealth building and a just transition.
Director of the Strathclyde Institute for Sustainable Communities, University of Strathclyde, Matt Hannon, warned delegates at the inaugural 9CCG conference on Building Community Wealth from Strategic Collaboration that research highlights a ‘growing sense that climate action is failing to empower communities’.
He said: “By driving climate action in a way that has so far failed to empower and enrich many communities, we may have inadvertently created the perfect conditions for net-zero opposition to flourish. The goal of the conference is to explore ways that climate action – particularly Community Benefit Funds from renewable energy – can empower and enrich our communities, and fortify public support for a low-carbon transition.”
More than 100 delegates at the Dumfries Arms in Cumnock heard that with community benefit from windfarms to grow across East Ayrshire there was a need to structure and govern it in a way that enriches and empowers communities, particularly its most deprived.
Professor Hannon, Professor of Sustainable Energy Business and Policy at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Innovation has worked on the Guiding Principles and Actions for Enhancing Community Benefits from Community Benefit Funds (GPAs).
It provides evidence-based guidance on how best to structure and govern CBFs to ensure that they maximise long term, wide-ranging benefits to communities for generations to come.
In a keynote presentation to developers, community groups and local politicians, Prof Hannon said he was encouraged to see the 9CC’s objectives align with the GPAs, including a commitment towards:
· local democratic funding decisions and empowerment.
· generating a long-term socio-economic impact and a positive legacy.
· establishing strong governance, efficiency, transparency and accountability for the funds.
He added: “At its core, The 9CC Group connects 9 different Community Councils, to ensure that funding from local wind projects, is spent on meeting the communities’ needs and aspirations, to build a better place to live, work, play and visit.
“By helping to coordinate these investments, the 9CC recognises the potential to generate a more significant impact by working collectively, versus independently.
“Such an approach is critical to ensuring that CBFs go beyond making small, piecemeal investments and are instead aggregated and coordinated in a way that unlocks more strategic investment opportunities at a regional level, which taken together are capable of accelerating community wealth building and a just transition.
“Without an organisation in the mould of the 9CC, it’s difficult to understand how such coordination of CBF investment could take place, and the hope is that such a model can be replicated in other regions elsewhere.”
The conference heard messages from His Royal Highness King Charles and UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP, as well as a presentation from 9CC Group chief operating officer Stephen McCarron, a keynote address by Brockwell Energy director Iain Cockburn, and a panel discussion involving local windfarm developers Onpath Energy, Invenergy and Red Rock Renewables.
The conference was organised by The 9CC Group, the charitable organisation managing and distributing community benefit for Auchinleck; Cumnock; Netherthird; Cronberry, Logan & Lugar; New Cumnock; Dalmellington; Patna; Drongan, Rankinston & Stair; and Ochiltree & Skares.
Mr McCarron: “The conference aimed to explore the strategic priorities for community benefit funds to help create a positive lasting legacy and we were delighted to have Prof Hannon’s insight.
“As he made clear, with the huge community funding coming onstream in the years ahead we need a collective, coordinated approach to maximise benefit for all communities across Cumnock and Doon Valley.”
For more information
Please refer to the 9CCG website
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