Climate change is the biggest challenge our civilization has ever faced. Without each citizen engaging in this very serious issue, and focusing on the future of their children, there won’t be one.

Compared to the rest of the Eurozone, Ireland is 50% above the average in Green House gas Emissions (excluding air travel, shipping and transport). Only 7.5% of our energy comes from renewable energy like solar or wind. On top of that: We import 90% of the energy coming from fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.

That’s not just causing environmental damage but also economic damabe. We lose 6.5 Billion Euro a year in imports not including millions worth of fines we’ll have to pay if we don’t hit our targets for reducing the country’s carbon footprint.
This is money that could stay in our economy, if we invested it in energy efficiency and the production of renewable energy, money that could potentially create 130,000 jobs for the Irish economy, mostly in rural Ireland.

This is a shocking state we’re in. How do we get out of it?

What we need is a national and international transition to a low carbon society that brings us to at least 50% of renewable self-produced energy by 2020.

The first challenge here is still building awareness: The people who have power right now are driven by interests that won’t push this topic:

• Politicians and political parties who decide on policies based on the short-term goal of being re-elected.
• Media, that is driven by advertising and ratings sales and the interests of its owners
• Strong lobbying groups from those businesses at risk when we switch to a zero-carbon society.

Only if citizens take the responsibility into their own hands and start to push this public agenda, will we still have a chance.

I don’t want us to look back in regret asking: Why did we not act as citizens when we had the chance? We all certainly have our own personal issues or family difficulties, but looming over us is this ominous existential threat to the future of our children and the species that we share our planet with. With all the scientific evidence that’s so clear we should be in a state of emergency and mobilise all our forces to make a shift.

We are powerless as individuals, but we can have a huge impact if we collaborate

Here is something we can start with: We can collaborate at the local level, by getting together in our communities and putting down a plan, as citizens, as community co-operatives on how to gain our power, heat and fuel from sustainable sources.

Solutions and opportunities will look different for every community depending on the skillsets and interests everyone can bring to the table. Let me give you two examples of things you can do in a co-operative:

• Build a producer and consumer co-operative where communities come together to source local energy and food. For example that would include organising regular markets selling local food and providing a platform for local sellers.

Read how the community group Bray Common Ground organise food orders from the Irish Independent Health Food Catalogue and more to build a more sustainable community

• Farmers in a community can set up biogas Anaerobic Digestion plants using farm slurry and silage. There are 9,000 of those AD plants in Germany now and only 3 in Ireland.

There is so much you can do if you just get together and work on it. This doesn’t need just one changemaker to take it on, it needs a community of changemakers who want to save this place for their children.

The one thing that I expect from our politicians in Ireland is to shape policy reforms and put mechanisms in place to drive this change. Local co-operatives need to get incentives to be able to take these ideas to the next stage. In other countries like Germany, Sweden and even the UK, communities get loans at low interest rates to build Biomass distribution systems or community-owned wind farms in their local area.

At the same time we need to have high-tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels. The revenue raised from this should be ring-fenced to fund incentives for sustainable solutions that save money and generate new livelihoods in all local urban and rural communities in Ireland.

My vision is having a variety of co-operative in every community in Ireland, working on different aspects and networking with each other. This won’t happen over night but today is a good day to start!

Here are two things that you can do right now

Gather people in your community

Just bring a few people from your community together, your friends, colleagues, the school parents club or friends from your local sports club, and figure out what your common interests and the available skills are that you can use to tackle the problems together.

The ChangeX environment section shows you some initiatives you can get started in your community that have a proven impact and also how it works.

ChangeX can support you in running a meetup on climate change in your area. Just Follow the 5 steps to hosting a ChangeX Meetup and register your interest to start one here.

Join the Get Involved movement

Existing groups already working on solutions can join the ‘Get Involved‘ movement and a nationwide competition. To do so, just contact the editors of your local weekly newspapers. By joining Get Involved, you get advice, publicity, support, inspiration and motivation from articles in the local paper, access to local networking and you can make an application for next year’s Get Involved competition.

For our series on the power of communities to tackle climate change in the run-up to/around the UN climate summit in Paris we’ve asked social entrepreneurs, environmentalists, researchers and community leaders for their comments on how communities can take action to reduce their carbon footprint and to build awareness for a more sustainable lifestyle. Please share your take on the issue with us. [email protected] , #ChangeX #Cop21

Duncan Stewart is an architect and has been working as a TV producer and presenter in environmental programmes for over 20 years. He is currently filming for the current series of Eco Eye with RTE exploring Ireland’s major environmental issues, commencing in January.