Big Green Challenge blog

Ed Miliband Launches Big Green Challenge Plus

Helen Goulden - 28.07.2009

Making the transition towards environmental sustainability should be positioned as making a transition to a better life.

Last Thursday saw the ministerial announcement of the Big Green Challenge Plus a programme to support 17 projects to realise their ambitions to deliver significant carbon savings within their communities.

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Department of Energy and Climate Change, stayed with us for the whole event, and took part in a fairly lengthy Q&A session around the newly launched Low Carbon Transition Plan. The Minister made no apologies for being 'in the persuasion business' and evidently believes very strongly that communicating positive messages about the transition to a low carbon UK and providing powerful examples and exemplars is critical in shifting patterns of working and living among the populace.

Making the transition towards environmental sustainability should be positioned as making a transition to a better life; towards modernity, the Minister said. And it's a strong message.  Speaking to some of the newly funded projects on Thursday there was a lot of support for his approach.

Arne Naess, founder of the Deep Ecology movement, used to talk about the 'Long Wall of Change'  -his way of articulating our different starting points and the different and varying impacts we can all have.  And the Big Green Challenge Plus projects represent an interesting mix in terms of approach, focus and potential impact. Some focus on the adoption of local/community energy generation within specific communities and sectors, others on delivering carbon reductions through social enterprise models.  Some seek to develop action-oriented models to seed across national networks, others are using schools act as catalysts for change across communities.

I have no doubt that the Big Green Challenge Plus will provide some exceptional exemplars of communities coming together to tackle carbon emissions and you'll be able to keep an eye on their progress on this website over the coming months.