Over the last couple of years on this blog I’ve come back a few times to Foundation Scotland and the role that well-designed community benefit funds can play in building social licence around big renewable projects. I’ve argued that: I was somewhat taken by the Foundation Scotland model through my Churchill Fellowship and this new […]
This is the second (and final) post in this series. Find Part 1 here. Rules of Engagement The processes, regulations and guidelines behind project community engagement drive how that engagement takes place. These might be government regulations, industry policies or local policies. In developing nations where projects are often funded by bodies such as the
Looking for the earlier posts? Here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. As previously noted, providing community benefits is increasingly becoming an expectation for those in areas where large-scale renewable energy and low-carbon projects are being built. As such, a failure to do so is likely to attract local community opposition. This is
Thoughts on Community Benefits: Part 4 – Community Benefit Funds Read More »
Beyond discrete measures like population and workforce numbers are the less quantifiable, but still critically important, impacts that projects can have on the sustainability, vitality and sense of place of the communities where they are built. The impact on these communities can be influenced by a wide range of factors, including how communities are communicated
Looking for previous posts? Here are Part 1 and Part 2. Let’s assume that the community benefits will flow. As I outlined in my Report, community benefits can be many different things. In this post, I’m going to have a look at a few of the options that I came across in my research; this
Thoughts on Community Benefits: Part 3 – The Benefits Read More »
Looking for Part 1? Click here. Anywhere there are large-scale renewable and low-carbon energy projects, there is a discussion about community benefits. Because every community is different, there is no single correct approach to providing benefits back to communities, and there has not always been the same level of pressure on both industry and government
Thoughts on Community Benefits: Part 2 – Eligibility Read More »
It was a great pleasure to appear on Wendy Agar’s emPOWER Podcast recently and discuss some of the key takeaways of my Churchill Fellowship report, especially around community engagement and community benefits. Through our conversation, we talked through: For anyone who doesn’t feel like reading the report, it’s a quick way to get across some
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time recently thinking and talking about community benefits from renewable energy projects. It’s something I covered off in some detail in my Churchill Fellowship report, but also an area that (due to length constraints) I had to carve a fair bit out of for my final report. Enough
Thoughts on Community Benefits: Part 1 – Report Summary Read More »
The topic of Renewable Energy Hubs has popped up in the media recently. This article from RenewEconomy discusses the persistent challenges in community engagement within Australia’s renewable energy sector, despite general support for renewable initiatives. It highlights that while industry practices have improved, there remains a significant “missing middle”—a gap in information and coordination that
The Clean energy Council and Farmers for Climate Action recent released a joint paper entitled “Billions in the Bush: Regional energy for regional prosperity“. It’s a good document, and ably argues that there will be significant benefits (literally billions of dollars worth) paid to landholders and communities as part of the roll-out of grid-scale renewables