Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Drop into a local cafe and test the new Energy Royd website

A new Upper Calder Valley website is now online, offering a fresh look at ways of reducing climate change. Energy Royd, funded by an UnLtd Millenium Award, aims to see whether a social media website is a good way for people to exchange ideas, information and experiences about how to reduce climate change and make sure that everyone has fair access to affordable, sustainable energy.

Jenny Shepherd, the website creator, is inviting members of the public to user test the website. You're welcome to meet up with Jenny in the Deli on Market Street, Hebden Bridge, on Tuesdays or Thursdays, between 3-4pm or 6-7pm, have some refreshments and try out the website for half an hour or so. If possible, please text her beforehand on 07974 302437 or email. Energy Royd is at www.energyroyd.org.uk.

Energy Royd asks what new, effective policies and programmes we can come up with, that put social justice at the heart of climate change reduction and draw on our creativity, skills and inventiveness to solve the problem of how to provide for all seven million of us in fair, sustainable ways. This kind of fresh look is necessary. More than twenty years of climate change reduction treaties, policies and programmes haven't stopped global and UK carbon emissions from continuing to rise - along with sea levels and the Earth's average temperature. And UK government programmes to provide affordable warmth haven't stopped fuel poverty from increasing at least threefold since 2003 - the year after Ofgem stopped regulating the prices that energy companies charge customers.

Eileen Wright was the first to user-test Energy Royd. "I don't know much about climate change," she announced before checking out the website. "Except that it's bad. And we need to do something about it."
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"I was really interested in what Eileen would think of the website once she'd tried it out," says Jenny, "and I'm looking forward to more feedback, particularly since I'm still developing it. I hope people who don't think of themselves as 'green' will enjoy using Energy Royd. Reducing climate change is an issue that's going to affect us all, so I hope Energy Royd will be a way for everyone who's interested to get their heads round it and have a say about what we need to be doing."
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Energy Royd is at www.energyroyd.org.uk.