Reducing oil dependency (and other resource scarcity issues)

Redbridge Faith Forum have published a report from the meeting held with Redbridge Green Fair on 'What can Redbridge do to reduce oil dependency?'

At St John's we have decided, following our PCC Away Day, to look at some materials giving a Christian perspective on peak oil in our homegroups in the New Year and will be using materials that Sam Norton has posted to do so.

On Monday I attended a very useful day's training on 'Energy Efficiency and Community Buildings', again organised by the Faith Forum and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust. Their national support programme, Community Action for Energy, is a network of like-minded people with an interest in community-based energy projects. Membership of the network is free and offers:

• Community helpline;
• Community support network providing 1.5 days of professional consultancy;
• Travel bursaries;
• Training courses;
• A guide to energy efficiency projects;
• Website;
• Case studies;
• Newsletter;
• E-news updates; and an
• Annual conference.

Finally, last night I went to the Tomorrow Network event on 'The Future of the Food Crisis' at the Royal Society where I heard Duncan Green, Director of Research at Oxfam, and Alex Evans, of the Center on International Cooperation, discuss the current food crisis throughout the world and its future prospects.

Among the points they made were the following:

• Recent food price rises represent a structural shift not a temporary blip because of four resource scarcity issues: energy (tight supply fundamentals and effect of bio fuels); water (demand has tripled over past 50 years); land availability (only 12% usable arable land left and pressure for other uses of it); and effects on agriculture of climate change (low crop yields and emissions from agriculture).
• The cost of high food prices is 850m + hungry people selling their futures (e.g. livestock); getting credit from loan sharks; sending children to work; and parents eating too little in order to feed their children.
• Agriculture must be made pro-poor through: small farmer-based agricultural growth (e.g. Viet Nam and India); effective states with active citizens (e.g. consumer associations such as the grain banks in Uganda); shifts to low carbon production; addressing the challenges of supermarketization, biofuels and outmigration; and solving the dilemma of food vs feed vs fuel.
• Property rights matters for poorer people and women in particular. A fairer distribution of land leads to greater growth (e.g. Taiwan and South Korea).
• Build community resilience to climate change i.e. addressing the loss of inherited knowledge when climate patterns change.
• Actions needed now include: raising yield and making food production more sustainable, resilient and fair; invest more in agriculture; focus on small farms (largest employer in the world); aid donors to focus on the four resource scarcity issues; social protection for poor people; develop security of supply through buffer food stocks and equitable trade agreements with developing countries; address effect that Western lifestyle (bio fuels and diet) has on the rest of the world.

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U2 - Love and Peace or Else.