For a decade, chronic electricity shortages in Gaza as a result of the Israeli occupation have undermined already fragile living conditions. In response, PENGON and its member organisations have implemented solar energy projects to bring immediate relief and clean, people-powered electricity to 650 households in the Jordan Valley and 270 in the Gaza Strip.
For 22 years Earthworker Cooperative has brought the environment/climate movement together with the labour movement to build cooperative manufactories and other cooperatives to enable communities to find ways out of the climate emergency. Today it successfully runs manufacturing and other energy, water, transport, and land care cooperatives.
Leuven 2030 is a 400-member network of local government, knowledge institutions, companies, and citizens working to make the Belgian city of Leuven carbon-neutral. The network’s diversity has been both a strength and a challenge, but its unity (preserved through consensus building and finding common ground) has led to significant steps towards carbon neutrality.
Since February 2018, Barcelona City Council’s public electricity distributor Barcelona Energia has managed the electricity market for all the energy generated by the city and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area – some 200 GWh/year. Barcelona Energia is one of the great triumphs of ‘Brave Barcelona’, which is standing up to corporate lobbies and achieving autonomy and power for its citizens.
In 2012, citizens from Highland Park, Michigan came together to form Soulardarity in response to the repossession of over 1,000 streetlights from their city. Their goal is to organise for community-owned solar street lights, energy production and equitable development. Since its formation, Soulardarity has installed seven solar streetlights and deployed over US$ 30,000 worth of solar technology in Highland Park and the surrounding communities through the PowerUP bulk purchasing programme. The group has also organised advocacy at the city and state levels for regulation, policy and local political leadership to support community ownership, transparency and environmental responsibility.
Soulardarity also advocates for a Community Ownership Power Administration (COPA) as part of the growing call in the United States for a Green New Deal to tackle climate change, economic inequality and racial injustice.