GET US OUT OF HERE

Energy wise we are in a mess, the privatised for dividend profit model for the energy sector, water and the railways has failed. The whole process of privatisation which was begun under Thatcher and Major has delivered fat dividends and bonuses for the directors, chief executives and shareholders and filled the coffers of the City, but little else for anyone else. 

We now collectively face a real crisis, which the current and future inhabitants of 10 Downing Street are incapable ( intellectually or otherwise ) of dealing with. An average energy ( according to Cornwall Insight ) was £1,277 last year, this will rise to £3,549 this year, with energy bills to rise again in 2023, with bills of £500 a month bring forecast. 

Fixing the immediate crisis of crippling bills which are going to plunger millions into dire fuel poverty ( basically any household with an in one of less than 45,000 according to the Chancellor recently ) is going to be difficult. 

There are some immediate relatively quick options available, start by cutting or reducing fuel duty and VAT on energy, along with raising the threshold for income tax for the lower tax bands, that might deliver more significant relief than handouts and help people out in the more immediate and medium term. 

We also need to be creative when it comes to making savings in energy use, in Germany, a range of energy saving measures are to be brought in from September:

We need to address the short term crisis which is upon us and also deal with the longer term problems that relate to the fundamentally flawed water that energy, utilities and the railways are currently run. 

The Conservatives handouts won’t really help or deal with the longer or medium term problems, nether will the Party formerly known as New Labour’s proposed freeze in energy prices ( which could cost about £60 billion pounds a year ) on a par with the Covid pandemic furlough scheme. 

In recent years, most Westminster Government’s have happily kicked the can down the road, when it comes to better insulation of our houses and individual or the development local community based community beneficial energy generation schemes whether via the use of solar panels or other options.

In September 1997, New Labour under pressure from the housing companies pulled proposals to increase insulation in all new build houses from the housing bill. More recently David Cameron and the Lib Dems changed the feed in tariffs for solar panels, which pulled the rug from under that part of the energy sector. 

We cannot go on as we are, the privatisation of state asserts and leaving it to the alleged free market has failed, the sooner we wake up to this reality the sooner we can find our way out of this mess. The large dividend profit driven energy monopolies, the water companies ( in England ) and the railway franchises need to be run on a not for dividend profit basis and at arms length from Westminster and the City of London.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE...

As the heavens opened, after the most recent heat wave, it would be fair to say that water ( or at least water management ) was on our minds. With hose pipe bans in parts of Cymru / Wales and England and Water Company bonuses ( in England at least ) reaching new shocking heights. Water is the literal stuff of life, and good little earner, it’s important everywhere and especially here in Cymru / Wales where it still remains a heated political issue. 

Only a couple of weeks ago the GMB ( London ) union suggested taking water from Wales to London and the SE. The plan would see water taken from United Utilities at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton Canal Tunnel in Gloucester. GMB London has said the plan could help to deal with periodic droughts in and around London.

Water also remains political issue on the other side of Offa’s Dyke, where last year in early July 2021  the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported that parts of England would run of of water within 20 years. Pulling no punches the PAC accused Ministers and water industry regulators of failing to act. Defra was also accuse of lacking any leadership on the issue and MPs called for the problems of water leakage to be addresses with urgency and people to be encouraged not to waste water.

It's normal for nations to control their own resources

Things are clearly getting worse over there for a while, two years prior to the PAC report, back in March 2019, the chief executive of the Environment Agency - the public body responsible for protecting the environment and wildlife in England - Sir James Bevan, told a Waterwise conference, that within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand. 

He stated that the impact of climate change, combined with population growth, means the country ( England ) is facing an "existential threat", "We all need to use less water and use it more efficiently and that, in around 20 to 25 years, England would reach the "jaws of death - the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs".

In October 2018, a water company, Southern Water - which serves customers in south eastern England, stated that customer demand is estimated to be double its available supply by 2020. As a result of climate change, a reduction of the amount of water allowed to be taken from natural sources, and a rise in population demand would outstrip supply. The company's plan for 2020-2025 set out how it would overcome the deficit by reducing leakage by 15% and encourage customers to use less water.

As was noted previously, this could be both good and bad news for Wales, good news if we had control of our own natural resources and could benefit from a fair price for our water, and bad news if we don’t. For amongst our rich resources water is likely to become a valuable resource for the people of Wales in future years, and who owns, it who controls it, and who benefits is likely to remain one of the key issues, of potential dispute between Westminster and Cardiff Bay. 

While our country’s voice has been significantly strengthened since 1999, with various Wales related acts, as yet we still do not have the same degree of control of our natural resources as either Scotland or Northern Ireland. Not for nothing does the issue of water rightly still understandably raises strong emotions and stirs long memories here in Wales. 

This matters because of Boris Johnson ( former Mayor of London, former foreign secretary and soon to be former Prime Minister) has previously wittered on about the need for a network of canals being needed to carry water from the wet North to the dry South (for the ‘wet North’ read ‘Wales). Boris's revolutionary thought, not to mention his poor grasp of geography, was not surprisingly not an original idea.

An old idea rebadged and reborn

This is not a new idea, as back in 1973, what was then the Water Resources Board, a now defunct government agency, wrote a major report that advocated building a whole raft of infrastructure to aid the movement of water, not to mention constructing freshwater storage barrages in the Ouse, Wash and Morecambe Bay, using a network of canals to move water from north to south, extending reservoirs and building new aqueducts, not to mention constructing a series of tunnels to link up river basins to aid the movement of water.

Despite the demise of the Water Resources Board in 1974 (two years before the 1976 drought) and its replacement by regional water management bodies, which were privatised in the 1980’s this issue has never really gone away. In 2006, the Environment Agency produced a report entitled "Do we need large-scale water transfers for south-east England ?" which in a refreshingly honest answer to its own question at the time was an emphatic ‘no’.

That said, faced with a prolonged period of drought in the South East of England, DEFRA itself held a drought summit on the 20th of February of 2012. The then Con Dem Government stated that it remained committed to the remaining legislative measures set out in its Water for Life agenda , which later became the Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Act. That is as they say history, but whatever Westminster eventually decides to do in relation to water resources, we in Wales still need to have full democratic control of our own resources. 

Our resources incidentally should include those parts of our country where Severn Trent Plc runs our natural resources for a fat profit. This process can begin with repatriating control of the Crown Estates and transferring control of lands in (and off-shore) to the Welsh Government in Cardiff. For the life of me I can see no realistic reason why this feudal anachronism cannot be consigned to the dustbin of history and control of it transferred to Cymru / Wales.

We need a whole Wales strategy to develop, conserve and enhance our water supplies and our planning regulations will need to be tweaked or rewritten accordingly. We need to take a long hard realistic look at our water resources and what we get for them and how we can develop them. I see absolutely no reason why the Welsh people cannot fully benefit from any future exploitation of our natural resources, including our water. 

Try not to make the same mistakes? Cofiwch Dryweryn

People should not be shocked to discover that the Government of Wales Act (2006) thanks largely to Peter (formerly the pain, Lord) Hain (amongst the other usual suspects) worked hard to specifically exclude the then Assembly (now Senedd) from making any laws relating to water supply – hmm – odd that isn't it?

Such duplicitous behaviour on the part of New or re-born Old Labour is not to be unexpected, even when it ineffectually rebrands itself as the Labour Party of Wales, its early typical behaviour.  Casting Tory and Labour spin and rhetoric aside, the bottom line is that all our water resources should belong to the Welsh people, not to Private corporations or to the UK Government. 

In England, with its privatised water companies it’s quite frankly a mess. Much like the privatised energy companies - the only thing that they have consistently delivered is annual bonuses and higher bills. The annual bonuses paid to water company executives rose by 20% in 2021, despite most of the firms failing to meet sewage pollution targets.

In total the 22 water bosses paid themselves £24.8 million including £14.7 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives, in 2021-2022. Yet problems with leaks, water shortages and sewage releases have remain with holidaymakers literally being told to stay away from the sea at some beaches last week. Sewage discharges have been recorded in coastal areas of Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon, Essex, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland and Sussex.

Severn Trent gave out the highest payouts in bonuses, base pay and benefits to executives, reached a total of £5,939,300, and United Utilities came next paying out £4,218,000. The numbers reveal that on average executives received £100,000 in one-off payments on top of their salaries, during a period in which foul water was being pumped for 2.7 million hours into England’s rivers and swimming spots. An analysis of water companies’ annual reports found that their bonus pool for executives now stands at more than £600,000 a company on average.

Now Wales has proven itself during the Coronavirus crisis by acting independently to protect our citizens from the dysfunctionality and ineptitude of the Westminster Government. Hopefully we are slowly waking up to the idea that there is another way, another future, another choice.  As Cymru / Wales comes out of this current elongated crisis, we simply cannot go back to the status-quo, certainly not when faced with a potential risk re-born aggressive centrist unionist Westminster government that’s hell bent on wrecking, undermining and rolling back devolution while simply being the glove puppet for the City of London. 

Under-investment and unfair funding forms the crux of this unequal union of broken promises - not delivered by the Tories at Westminster and regularly defended by Labour in Wales and Labour in Westminster even through their support for the stagnant status-quo which has failed Wales. Our water needs to be seen for what it is - a valuable resource, a commodity, which  Cymru / Wales is fortunate to have it. 

Our resources should be taken for a pittance and used by large corporations who rack up significant profits and then fritted away whilst our communities and our nation get next to nothing for it. Any post BREXIT future draft Wales Bill should strengthen the powers that we in Cymru / Wales including those over our natural resources and associated planning processes and should transfer control of those parts of the Severn Trent water franchise to Dwr Cymru and Cymru / Wales. 

Resource management is important, is interesting to note that almost a quarter of London's water is lost through leakages. Thames Water also have a desalination plant which is currently turned off and, since 2006, they have been promising to build a new reservoir near Abingdon but it has not happened. This is not a case of extracting a profit during a time of shortage, merely making sure that Cymru / Wales gets a fair deal and a fair price for a valuable resource.

STANDING WITH UKRAINE

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Ukraine’s independence from the former Soviet Union, an empire by any other name. The independence of Ukraine followed the collapse of the Soviet Union following the hardliners failed coup attempt on 24th August 1991. 

The Ukrainian’s with their land split between Imperial Russia and Austria-Hungry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stood little chance, of achieving statehood or independence. The chaotic end of the First World War saw at one point at least two Ukrainian governments in existence, during the existence of the Soviet Union the possibilities of Ukrainian becoming independent were minimal. 

The horrors of the famine, collectivisation, and the Second World War inflicted horrendous casualties on Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The emergence of the Soviet Union, under Stalin, emerging as one of the worlds two new post war superpowers and the start of the Cold War confrontation effectively locked the Ukraine into the USSR. 

For all the fiction that surrounded the myth that that the Soviet Union was a socialist republican paradise it was and behaved liked an Empire, with the Russians on top and the Ukrainians somewhat lower in the pecking order, not at the bottom of the heap, but, not quite at the top. 

The collapse of the coup attempt by communist hardliners 24th August 1991 was the final straw that broke the camels back, partially free elections in 1990 had seriously weakened Communist control in the Baltic Republics, Georgia and Armenia. The Russian Federation under its newly elected President Boris Yeltsin reached out to take power. 

At the same time, on the 24th August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine passed a resolution calling for a national referendum on the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. Russia effectively became independent and the USSR began to collapse.

The Ukrainian independence vote took place on December 1st 1991, worth 28,804,071 ( 93.3 p% ) voting for independence, and 2,427,554 ( 7.7% ) voting against independence ( with 670,117 invalid of blank votes. 31,891,742 electors ( 84% of the electorate voted ) out of an electorate of 37,885,555. 

Interestingly enough when you drill down through the votes by region in Lughansk on a 68% turnout 83.86% of the people voted for independence, in Donetsk on a 64% turnout 83.90% voted for independence. On December 2nd 1991 much of the rest of the world recognised the independence of the Ukraine. 

Achieving actual independence was only half of the struggle. The transition towards a non Soviet economy was economically and socially grim, eight years of recession followed independence. And just as the Ukraine emerged into more prosperous times in ended up being enveloped, along with everyone else in the banking crash of 2008 and its consequences. 

Aside from economic turmoil there has been a long struggle to create a stable representative non corrupt democratic state. The Euromaidan Revolution of February 2013 saw the overthrow of pro Russian oligarchs, within days Russian stoked unrest began in the Crimea and in Donetsk and Luhansk - and the rest as they say is history. 

Today is also the sixth monthly anniversary of the unprovoked Russian attack on the Ukraine. For years before the Russian attack the Ukrainian government had been asking for assistance and defensive weapons to protect their state people and their state from Russian attack, although to no avail. 

The Wests support moral and material to the Ukraine during the current war is vital and our support in every possible way is important. This is going to be a long war, and simply forcing the Ukraine to compromise its sovereignty and independence is completely unacceptable.

UNOBSERVED ANNIVERSARIES

The dog end of August is a time of historic anniversaries, in 2021 they were overshadowed by the drama and tragedy surrounding the collapse of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul, normally its a time of often ignored or perhaps selectively unobserved anniversaries and missed opportunities. 

The last few days have seen anniversaries for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (in August 1968) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (in August 1991) pass largely unremembered and unobserved. Saturday 21st August 2022 it was the 53rd  anniversary of the Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia, it’s an anniversary that these days increasingly passes largely unnoticed save perhaps by some people in Prague. 

Now that the Soviet Union is history, although the Russian Federation is aggressively on the rise in the east, so people have lots of other things to be worried about.  It’s been 54 years since Soviet troops and most but not all of their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21st 1968. The 31st Anniversary of Ukrainian independence ( Wednesday 24th August 2022 ) will be remembered - particularly was it's under threat following the un-provoked attack by the Russian Federation some six months ago.

The Soviet-led invasion effectively established the Brezhnev Doctrine, which Moscow said allowed the U.S.S.R. to intervene in any country where a Communist government was under threat. The Soviet backed occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted until the velvet revolution brought an end to the Communist dictatorship in November 1991 as the Cold War ended. It was always contested - the reformist communists were finally defeated in the mid 1970's just as detente created the Helsinki accords which inspired Charter 77. Russia’s attitude to the invasion still touches raw emotions, evens in the Czech and Slovak republics. 

The thirty first anniversary of the collapse of the USSR largely passed unremembered, both the West and more understandably in Russia, the reasons for Russia’s desire to forget the past are understandable. The Brits lost their Empire over a period of thirty years, over fifty years ago, and some of them have still not got over the losing of it. The Russians lost their Empire in a fortnight, which must still sting a bit, even thirty years down the line. 

The West was silent when it came to remembering the anniversary of the collapse of the USSR. Perhaps considering the hubris displayed at the time, the wilful glee the came with the botched dismemberment of the old Soviet state industries and assets, the rise of the oligarchs (some of whom were very close and comfortable with New Labour and still comfortable with he Conservatives and the rise of President Putins new Russia, the silence is understandable. 

The it comes to anniversaries August may be the month that keeps on giving on the Tuesday 23rd August 2022 is the 83rd anniversary of the 1939 the signing of Nazi Germany’s and the Soviet Union’s pact which effectively guaranteed the start of the second world war. The event is well remembered the Baltic republic and Poland but very rarely anywhere else, especially in the Russian Federation, where history is both important and selectively remembered. 

When the Poles held a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, world leaders gathered, but the Brits did not go, obviously other important things to do and remember ( wonder who the Foreign Secretary was ).

Human history is complex, and remembrance is important, forgetting is also very human and is part of life, but, remembrance should be balanced rather than selective. Selectively forgetting the past and erasing our collective history is a more dubious practice ( especially in these islands, Hungary, Russia and the Peoples Republic of China, etc ) but also within these islands, especially when it comes to ‘Brit washing’ the perceptions of and the grim realities of Empire, etc. 

Even in the West, the elite can be very selective about the anniversaries and the history they wish us to remember. Creating a rose tinted view of the past, is neither history nor remembrance, nor is it honest, its manufactured / peddled nostalgia - and that is dubious, dishonest and potentially dangerous. 

Hence the special urge to remember the first day of the Somme, Passchendaele, the Dunkirk spirit, the Battle of Britain (all are absolutely important to remember, in their correct historical context) - to reimagine these islands past simply to distract people from the mess the Westminster elite have got us into since Suez, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the financial collapse of 2008, etc is unacceptable but nothing is quite as unacceptable as blatantly lying through ones teeth and manipulating evidence to justify a war. 

Other less reputable awkward embarrassing anniversaries are ignored or effectively selectively airbrushed from history e.g. the Sykes-Picot-Sazanov agreement, the anniversary of  Amritsar, various bloody Sundays, etc.  

For most of the last 21 years successive Westminster governments worked hard to ensure that our service personnel have had a much higher profile, making use of various important anniversaries of previous conflicts, sporting occasions and regularly promoting armed forces day. That emphasis had effectively ceased as the direct involvement of UK service personnel in the cycle of Blair’s wars has finally wound down save for covering the botched evacuation of Kabul.

It is important to remember how we ended up in this mess and who made those decisions. It is equally important that we remember that Westminster (with the honourable exception of the 1945 Labour Government) has often neglected our war veterans after previous war’s ended and faded into memory. We all still need to work to ensure that never again can it be acceptable for any Westminster Government makes the decision that dead heroes are cheaper and less trouble to remember than live ones.

THE URBAN SPONGE

Oddly enough as we quietly toast in the final days of the latest heatwave - we find ourselves awaiting the rains - and as sure as day follows night - the floods. Heavy at times torrential downpours on parched solid soil can result in localised flash flooding - it's happened before and it will happen again. Part of the problem is that our infrastructure cannot cope with the runoff and the sheer volume of water. 

A near miss in Newport in 2016

In a warmer wetter world heatwaves and flood events are going to become more common - we need to build into our communities the resilience to cope with flooding.  We need to think and act smarter, and shift the focus from flood prevention to flood avoidance. Our communities, our nation and our world are becoming more prone to extreme weather, torrential downpours and periods of warmer or hit dry weather. 

Dealing with the consequences of this on a marco level is one thing.  Small relatively simple steps to store water for later use, with water butts (if only to water garden plants and vegetables) can make a very practical if minor use of excessive rainfall and runoff if only very locally.  Aside from helping to save water and to cut water bills.

Local water storage and management is increasingly part of intelligent urban design, something that is becoming more common and necessary in a warmer wetter world.  On a larger scale this is something we will all have to do, naturally some people and nations are a head of the curve when it comes to re-engineering their infrastructures to deal with extreme weather events. 

The concept of the sponge city or urban sponge something that is embedded and central to urban planning should now be coming into its own, particularly in Wales, with our urban areas being redesigned or designed from the start to soak up, and store deluges of torrential rain to prevent damaging and dangerous flash flooding but without the construction of large scale flood defences.  

The Dutch, for historical and geographical reasons have been involved in serious water management for centuries. Yet in a warmed world, even the Dutch are having to take long hard fresh look at how they deal with the consequences or severe weather and more regular flooding along with a rise in sea levels. 

Many urban areas have developed with any serious co side ration of the impact of flash flooding - back in July 2021, in localised parts of London heavy torrential downpours saw local drainage systems overwhelmed - as streets became rivers, homes and businesses were flooded and public transport ( including trains and tubes ) brought to a standstill. In London, heavy rain, which fell on hard surfaces, overloaded drainage and severe flooding resulted. 

There is certain a case that it if happens on London, then Westminster, at least in the short term cannot ignore it, if it happens outside of London then it’s another matter. In Pontypridd the existing flood defences were overwhelmed more than once simply being in poor condition and unable to cope with the sheer volume of water. 

Now elsewhere things are done differently - the sponge city concept has been embraced in parts of Berlin, were green roofs have been created with living plants, mosses and grasses, with plants Boeing on vertical walls, with courtyards planted with vegetation, etc - all of which helps to hold and slow excessive water. One beneficial side effect, if that the retained water helps to cool local neighbourhoods as the water evaporates from vegetation and the ground. 

In the Netherlands, the concept of making room for the river has been embraced to give space for flooding, something which slows the speed of riverine flooding. In Amsterdam, they have constructed rain gardens which have been created from parking areas, which are designed to collect water, people have also been encouraged to remove paving from their gardens, to grow plants and to build ponds to help with runoff and water storage. 

In the city of Rotterdam, public places have been turned into what are called water plazas which turn into shallow lakes during periods of heavy rain, when times are drier these locations are used as public parks and playing fields. Underground car parks have been redesigned or specifically built so that lower levels can be used to store storm related flood waters - which can then be pumped dry when water levels have dropped. 

These concepts are only slowly being looked at a adopted within these islands, we still tend to defy logic and build on flood planes, but, tend not to harden infrastructure of buildings ( commercial and domestic ) or to build with flooding in mind  e.g. build smart using ground floors for storage or parking and raise plug and power points, protect utilities and drains, and put washing machines, fridges sand freezers up off the ground. 

Some urban areas, within these islands, have slowly begun to adopt the concept, there are examples in Llanelli and at West Gordon Park, near Manchester - where porous pavements, shallow depressions, grass berms and small ponds help to absorb and direct surplus water into rain gardens or natural sumps or green spaces that double up as parks in drier periods. 

These are small steps, in a warmer, wetter world with more erratic and extreme weather events the problem of flooding will only get worse. As homeowners pave over their gardens for parking spaces the problem will worsen. The concept of the urban sponge is one that we all need to embrace, along with smart design and smart water management to help to reduce or alleviate urban flooding or we are going to be living with the consequences.  

DIED OF A THEORY

The on-going energy crisis, made worse by the initial spike in gas bad oil prices when the war between Russia and Ukraine started, was not to be unexpected. The temporary solutions (including handouts) offered by the Conservative Prime ministerial candidates range from hand outs to tax cuts, will all fail to address the underlying long term problems that have  brought us to the current crisis. 

In the 1960's people were told that by the year 2000 energy would be so cheap that it would be impossible to bill people for it (as my late father told me - more than once). Now that never happened, as a direct result of the ideologically driven privatisation of the energy boards created a privatised (effective) monopoly and sowed some of the seeds of the current energy crisis which lies firmly rooted i the failure to develop sustainable renewable energy resources.

Once the ideology driven fiction of “market forces” set to work and time passed ( and merger, and acquisition followed merger and acquisition along with the asset stripping frenzy ) we were left with the big six energy suppliers (basically a dodgy cartel by any other name). The only real beneficiaries to all of this in the medium too long term has been the City of London and the Stockmarket - which to be honest was probably always the intention.

What was a bad idea to start with was mad worse with large nominal weak token gesture regulation and that despite some periodic and actually very effective work by Westminster parliamentary select committees. The cartel members have been able to get away with much - mostly at our expense (literally) - especially when it comes to the price of energy to consumers.

If the fictitious free market energy sector had a tombstone it could read “Died of a theory”. It is time to recognise that this costly ideologically theory driven experiment has failed and failed badly.  Much like the privatisation of the railways and the water companies in England. That said simply rolling the clock back to having it all run by the indifferent dead hand of a re-centralised post Brexit Brit state is not a realistic option. 

I will be honest, I don’t trust any Westminster government to leave state run utilities alone - particular if they make a profit. From what I have read about pre privatisation state utilities, the more profitable state run enterprises were periodically pillaged for funds - which were transferred to other less successfully state run enterprises. 

That's partially how we ended up in this mess to start with. We need to do something quite different - firstly we need to make sure that we don't get fleeced over our energy bills by the members of the 'Big 6 Energy Cartel' - who have all made fat profits over the years at our expense. 

Secondly, we  need to see in motion the energy utility companies from dividend profit to non dividend profit enterprises, which are not run by Westminster (or having seen Labour in Wales in action over recent years ) by the Senedd either.  

Now in Cymru / Wales having recognised that what we have does not work, we need to change the rules of the game and to create a national energy company for Wales to generate sustainable and reasonably priced energy, which can also be part of the solution to create a low carbon society. 

There is no reason to suggest that similar solutions would not work in parts of England. Ynni Cymru, should be run as a not-for-dividend company at arms-length from the Welsh Government. This would prevent the agencies of the state from skimming profits off the top and ensure that they get reinvested.

This is a realistic vision for energy ( development and supply ) and the environment to reduce our energy sectors carbon emissions, harnesses our ample natural resources sustainably, and provide opportunities in the low-carbon and circular economies. The link between energy and climate change has to be clear. 

A number of actions could fall into the remit of Ynni Cymru, including: reducing the cost per unit of energy to homes and businesses in Wales, reducing the consumption of energy in homes and businesses and helping consumers to make informed decisions based on smart metering technology.

Ynni Cymru should be tasked with funding the mass installation, outsourced to local companies, of solar panels on the roofs of households, business premises and lampposts in Wales, beginning with public buildings and social housing. The company could coordinate and facilitate the use of publicly owned land for renewable energy purposes. 

The company could finance the acquisition and development of new large-scale generating and storage capacity, ensuring Wales becomes self-sufficient in renewable energy and becomes a renewable energy exporter. It could boost our energy market by ensuring the development of a national producer cooperative among community energy organisations.

The problem we face is that our energy production and distribution model has been effectively restructured to primarily benefit the big 6 energy cartel members, their interests and their (City) profits. 

From the perspective of energy consumers and smaller scale energy producers, or anyone who wants things to change the problem is that all the Westminster focused political parties have happily bought into this cartel dominated model of energy production and ownership (or perhaps more truthfully were quietly bought).

The reality is that the UK’s cartel dominated model for energy production and distribution is not necessarily the norm everywhere in Europe or around the world. Now contrary to what you might think, and tend hear from Westminster and much of the UK media; realistic alternatives exist and actually prosper, a particularly good example of a balanced and healthy energy mix can be found in Germany. 

Small may very well be beautiful, even with a geographically sizeable state, especially in relation to energy, in the year 2000 renewables accounted for 6.3 percent of electricity demand only, its share has been growing significantly over the last years, exceeding 10 percent in the year 2005 and 25 per ent in the year 2013. 

In 2021 renewable energy sources produced more electricity than all fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil) together and now provide 41.1 percent of German electricity demand. With wind power being the most important energy source in the German electricity mix. 

Community based co-operatives (both urban and rural), farmers and homeowners are part of the 1.3 million renewable energy producers and part of the energy mix. In Germany, citizens’, cooperatives, and communities own more than half of German renewable capacity. Small-scale electricity generation is having a knock on effect encouraging change throughout the energy system.

Citizens’ owned energy in Germany involves:  

* Private individuals or farmers (jointly or individually) invest in energy facilities

* The investment is made with the citizens own capital, which gives a certain level of control over the project

* Citizens own at least 50 percent of voting shares

* Citizens have a connection to the region where the facility is operated

In Berlin, a cooperative (Burger Energie Berlin – literally Berlin Citizens Energy) continues to strive to take control of the capital's electricity grid with some 35,000km of underground cables. The cooperative is a free, cross-party coalition of citizens who are committed to a sustainable, sustainable and democratic energy policy in Berlin. Members have one vote regardless of the amount their deposit and anyone who wants the power network to be in civil hand, is welcome.

Ordinary Berliners have invested their cash in the venture with the intention of producing a reliable 100 per cent renewable energy supply. The aim is to promote the integration of renewable energy into the grid and to invest a portion of the profits from this directly into the transition to renewable energy. After some serious campaigning, on the 5th March 2019 the Berlin electricity grid was awarded to Energie Berlin. 

This is grass roots energy generation that has potentially the power to change the nature of the energy supply system (in Germany and elsewhere). The aim to build an energy grid that is better handle the rise of green power and allows local use of locally produced energy. This may well be a case of small being both beautiful and perhaps deeply disturbing from the perspective of Westminster and Cardiff Bay something that can be both community beneficial and community owned. 

There is no practical reason beyond ‘thats not the way it’s done here’ why people living here in Cymru / Wales could not benefit from membership of citizen owned energy co-operatives. In Germany, there is a deliberate promoted policy of energy transition (or ‘Energiewende’) – this is a very different approach to what is practised in these islands (at least south of the Scottish border). For a start the ‘Energiewende’ is driven by a desire to reduce and eliminate any dependency on nuclear energy.

The introduction of the Feed-in-tariff (EEG) in 2008 was an important part of this process, along with (post Fukushima) the almost unanimous across the board political commitment to a wide range of targets (in 2011) which included a commitment to reduce energy demand (with a 50% reduction in primary energy use by 2050) and the achievement of an 80% renewable electricity share of total consumption (by 2050). This has resulted in a significant uptake of renewables in Germany.

The real striking difference is that the operation of the grid in Germany means that generated renewable electricity is used first and that distribution network operators (DNOs) are also seeking to reduce demand. This is so radically different from the way the energy is generated, distributed, exported and used here in our country that it no doubt, at least from their limited perspective, quite understandably frightens Westminster focused politicians, the civil shrive and the city.

A significant difference, aside from the scale and pattern of investment (in Germany), is that small businesses, co-operatives, individual households and local authorities benefit from investment distributed by a network of local banks (again something we pretty much entirely lack here in Wales). 

The whole thing has been supported by the KfW (state investment bank) to the tune of 23.3 billion euro in the area of environment and climate protection. These developments are a million miles away from the so-called ‘Free market’ for energy that exists in the UK, which is dominated by the ‘Big 6’ energy cartel members. 

The fact that some former politicians have found rather rewarding post political career employment within the energy sector may be co-incidental but suggests that there is little desire for improvement within Westminster and perhaps a complete lack of understanding of the concept from any Labour in Wales government(s) be they previous, current or future. 

The way the current set up works, it is difficult to imagine ‘a Government’ at most levels (at least outside of Scotland in the UK grasping the concept, the practicalities and real possibilities of genuine community owned beneficial energy generation projects. 

Pending some real change in the way energy policy works we are all pretty much trapped with a real lack of meaningful choice or realistic alternatives when it comes to customers securing domestic energy from the big 6 cartel members.

Over the years we have seen a visionless increasingly corrupt New Labour, Conservative-Lib DeM and then Conservative governments in Westminster, all, of whom have remained hand in glove with despotic oil and gas-producing regimes in the Middle East ( aside from the vassal like relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia ) so naturally there has been little real interest in developing renewables on a scale to ensure energy independence. 

After “Dodgy Dave” Cameron, we saw a weak and wobbly Teresa May, and then “lazy Bozo” Johnson ( soon to be be replaced by more of the same ) in office - all desperate to avoid fundamentally restructuring the energy sector and all hamstrung by the significant side effects of Brexit. 

All of these Westminster government’s have effectively if not actively work to pull the rug out from under the renewables sector - something that has cost highly skilled jobs (here in Cymru / Wales) and contributed to these islands over-dependence on overseas hydro carbons.

Half measures just won’t cut it - we need to be radical, starting with a windfall tall, followed by the transition from dividend profit to non dividend profit energy companies, with the breakup of energy monopolies and the developing of a fundamentally different energy sector.

We need a focus on community beneficial energy production, and a drive for much better insulation in new ( and retrofitted on older ) homes and significant energy savings and a focus on efficient use and local generation of energy supplies which can feed into the grid. 

Perhaps it’s time to shatter or at least drag into public view the questionably cozy relationship that exists between the big six energy cartel members and some politicians and political parties. Whether it’s well paid post politics jobs on the board, donations (just exactly do they get for their money?), the sponsoring of events at party conference(s), full page full colour adverts in conference programmes, or free tickets for sporting events ( very nice but just what is expected in return for the tickets?, etc ).