Can we really pull all funding away from these ‘bad sources’
of coal burning/oil exploration? Will divestment really make a fundamental
shift in such a short term? It would be naïve to believe that hundreds of
millions of sterlings, Euro’s, Dollars, Yen will switch over in a short amount
of time that the carpet will be pulled under from all these dirty technologies?
Unlikely …..
It may be premature to mention that nuclear and fossil fuels
have ‘lost the race’
as transition is not as easy as many believe. With pension schemes from big UK
firms looking to potentially switch investments towards massive projects such
as Swansea Tidal Lagoon
(and Cardiff and Newport Lagoons) yet what about all the smaller co-operatives
that have been screaming out for funding for the last twenty years? Will they
continue to be overlooked?
There are many heroes that it would not be right to forget
about who pioneered community renewables and investing in local areas yet were
unsuccessful in their initial renewable energy applications at the turn of the
century (Awel Aman Tawe
in Swansea and Arts Factory in
Ferndale) yet hopefully their reinvented practises will flourish this time
around as the 2010’s recognises greater need for co-operatives in renewables,
housing, food, skills etc.Divestment is important, yet what was holding it back a decade ago in boom periods? After all the media pomp has quietened ….. will we remember the investment in small co-operatives? Or will we look towards the larger impressive projects?
What choice would you make?