I am currently Head of Policy at NPC and lead policy and advocacy work for NPC's Everyone's Environment programme. Everyone's Environment is focused on involving disadvantaged groups in environmental policymaking and ensuring that their voices contribute to a fair transition to a green economy.

My Fellowship will explore how to generate buy-in from local communities for community-owned renewable energy projects. I will visit community energy groups in Germany, France and the USA to understand how they engage local people and build support for their work. These countries have very different contexts in terms of their energy sector and the drivers for community energy, but both France and Germany are ahead of the UK in numbers, and community energy is being used in urban areas in the USA specifically to tackle inequality.

I intend to use the insights from my Fellowship to continue to support UK policymakers to ensure that the energy transition works for communities. Community energy has a key role to play, both in terms of delivering direct cost savings to communities and in showing people the benefits of the energy transition.