Deputy Council leader salutes 'amazing' Oldhamers working hard to tackle climate change in new podcast

In a time when some believe world leaders still don’t commit to the targets necessary to avoid planetary disaster, local action is more important than ever.

A new podcast - 'Power in the City' - released by Greater Manchester energy cooperative Carbon Coop, highlights voices and stories of people on the ground who are getting on with tackling the climate emergency in their own neighbourhoods.

Power in the City is about all the low carbon things local people, businesses and organisations already do – knowingly or not.

The first season takes the listener to Oldham.

Carbon Coop teamed up with local researcher Melissa Kelly Shore and many stakeholder organisations to explore how local ideas, expertise and ambition can be scaled up to power a green revolution for Oldham.

What’s working already and what are current and potential benefits for local people?

Where are the barriers to action and how could the energy transition be made easier, fairer and more equitable for everyone?

The first season of Power in the City will consist of five episodes, one episode released every three weeks.

The first episode, Talking about Walking, is out now.

You can subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Supported by Electricity North West's Powering our Communities Fund, this informative and entertaining podcast features walking hairdressers and cycling imams, local politicians with a passion and a plan, innovative and bold SMEs showing the way and community organisations taking matters into their own hands when it comes to long-term solutions to resident’s rising energy bills.

The concept for the podcast is developed by community activist and storyteller Britt Jurgensen (Carbon Coop) and Anthropologist Hannah Knox (UCL).

It builds on their past creative collaborations and Carbon Coop’s long term engagement with Oldham communities during the Oldham Energy Futures programme.

Reflecting on the process, podcast producer Britt said: “Climate change and the energy transition are hugely important issues.

"But, the way they're talked about by experts is often quite dry and somehow removed from you and me or where we live.

"From our community work we knew that there are many more voices and stories out there - stories about action and social innovation and about care and doing things together.

"The mix of creativity, humour and generosity we found in Oldham was quite incredible really.

"It gives me real hope that we might just be able to crack this wicked problem called climate change and imagine a greener, more sustainable future in action.”

Commenting on the release after featuring as an interviewee for the podcast, Cllr Abdul Jabbar, Oldham Council Deputy Leader, said: "Climate change is the defining challenge of our time and one which can only be solved if everyone works together - here at the Council we are absolutely committed to playing our part to meet this challenge but we cannot succeed on our own.

"This Power in the City podcast series highlights the amazing work that Oldham residents, organisations and businesses are already doing to tackle climate change and it is really fantastic to hear voices from all sections of the community talking about their ideas.

"Carbon Co-op have done a great job in producing this podcast series and we very much look forward to continuing to work with them on more ground-breaking projects here in Oldham."

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