The final plenary session to the highly successful ruralnet|2007 treated delegates to some insights into the significant activity taking place all over the UK by rural communities to tackle climate change, the ‘collective’ way.

This lively and insightful panel session highlighted the importance and benefits of taking a collective approach to tackling climate change. Collective approaches effectively ‘tap’ into the wealth of knowledge and experience that exists within our communities. This ‘Collective Genius’ was discussed as something that is incredibly important and valuable to communities undertaking energy projects as it can be used to create something greater and stronger than the individual can. The underlying principle of the Rural Community Carbon Network (RCCN) lies in this collective genius and will facilitate it’s transfer throughout a network of community projects.

(Above: the panelists - L-R: Adam Kennerley, Garry Charnock, & Angela Duignan)

Chaired by ruralnet|uk CEO Simon Berry, the session opened with some inspiring presentations from the panellists; Angela Duignan from Energy4All, Garry Charnock from Going Carbon Neutral Ashton Hayes and Adam Kennerley from Wasteless Society.

All three panelists commented on the need for a way of being able to network groups up so that they can share knowledge and learn from each others successes and failures. There are many highly diverse community energy projects springing up all over the United Kingdom; from energy awareness-raising projects to large-scale community owned wind farms.

Presently, there is no way for these projects being able to learn from one another’s experiences and knowledge and it was widely recognised by the panel that a network could provide these projects with many opportunities and much needed support. The RCCN would provide groups with this peer-to-peer support together with access to an online panel of experts and funding for events, twinnings and mentoring provision for new groups, provided by experienced ones.

Another highlight of ruralnet|2007 include the book ‘A Snapshot of Rural Britain - 100 memories, 100 visions’, written by delegates in just 8 minutes. The 103 contributions have now been typed up and total 20,000 words. This unique snapshot of Rural Britain will now be typeset and printed, hopefully by the end of October. To order a copy, please contact Angela Brankley on 0845 1300411 and costs £9.99 including p&p.

To view details about all the plenary sessions at ruralnet|2007, please go to the conference blog site HERE.

Notes to editors:

1. ruralnet|2007, delivered in partnership with Advantage West Midlands and supported by The Post Office.

2. ruralnet|2007 took place at The Belfry, West Midlands on 10th & 11th October 2007.

3. For a look at the full programme of events, go to www.ruralnetuk.org/conference