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What does a socially just energy system look like? We discuss the issues at the Centre for Alternative Technology
Last weekend the Centre for Alternative Technology hosted the Small is Beautiful festival – two days of DIY wind power workshops, straw building, singing workshops, and a series of participatory debates. With its stunning backdrop of sustainable architecture and functioning forest gardens, CAT is home to progressive postgraduate courses on climate adaptation and politics. Researchers at CAT have spent years crunching…
18 Sep 2015 jane -
Azerbaijan journalist imprisoned for seven and a half years
Azerbaijan investigative journalist and Platform ally, Khadija Ismayil, has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. The BP funded ALiyev regime have given Khadija this sentence in retribution for the stories she wrote. Khadija has been an outspoken critic of BP and the UK government for supporting the Azerbaijan regime. Khadijah’s sentencing follows the murder…
4 Sep 2015 admin -
Civil Society in Nigeria calls for deeper commitment to clean-up
This month marked the 4th anniversary of a historic UNEP report calling for extensive action for the clean-up in the Niger Delta. I caught up with reactions from our partners in Nigeria and jumped on Arise TV to share our responses to the meetings that took place and to ramp up pressure on Shell to follow through…
25 Aug 2015 admin -
How to save energy jobs in Scotland: Public ownership, not tax cuts
As thousands of North Sea oil workers lose their jobs, helicopter pilots threaten strike action over redundancy arrangements and Unite criticise the oil companies of failing “to plan for a rainy day when the sun shone”, we thought we’d share an extract of this new report. ——————————————————- Extract from “Jobs in Scotland’s New Economy”, published by the Scottish…
25 Aug 2015 admin -
Save the date – Action Saro-Wiwa events
2015 is the 20th anniversary of the executions of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni men. They were murdered by the Nigerian military government for protesting against Shell’s devastation of their Niger Delta land, once the breadbasket of Africa. Action Saro-Wiwa is contributing to two events coming up in August to push for justice…
30 Jul 2015 jane -
Poetry that changes us – and join Shake! in August
We are not idealists. We know that art alone does not make the revolution. But we are not fools. We know that revolution is impossible without the art. Frente Popular, Dario Santillan Platform was invited to take part in the recent ‘Footprint Modulation: art, climate and displacement‘. This was a multi-site exhibition and season of…
8 Jul 2015 jane -
What is Energy Democracy and how do we pay for it?
To build energy democracy we need to break the control of corporations over our energy. Companies like BP and Shell and the Big Six play an enormous role in determining which fuels are used to generate energy, how much we pay for electricity, and where the profits go. These big companies work hard to convince…
22 Jun 2015 admin -
Divest and reinvest: 6 local governments that are innovating for sustainability
This guest blog by Stuart Anderson was original posted by Friends of the Earth Scotland “The fossil fuel divestment movement is the fastest growing divestment campaign in history with over 500 active divestment campaigns underway at universities, cities, churches, banks, and other institutions.” – 350.org Over the past two years there has been a growing…
16 Jun 2015 admin -
Tate’s BP decision: What should Tate have done differently?
David Carrington explains why arts organisations seeking commercial support could learn important lessons from the way Tate conducts itself as revealed through the recent BP sponsorship Freedom of Information case. David is an independent consultant and governance adviser. This article is part of ‘Mind the Gap: expert evaluations of Tate’s ethical decision-making over BP‘. For…
