THE government’s rural watchdog has outlined its programme to promote renewable energy in the countryside.

The Commission for Rural Communities published the one-page document as world leaders gathered for a climate change summit in Copenhagen.

All communities contributed to climate change through emissions from energy use, transport and consumption, it said.

But rural communities with no public transport faced the additional challenge of having to rely on the car.

“Climate change policy is already having a big impact on rural communities in England – particularly in the focus on renewable energy at local level.”

More rural communities were playing a strong role in tackling climate change, said the commission.

Some 129 rural communities were involved in a Transition Towns process to decrease dependency on fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy.

Meanwhile, however, some 21.3% of rural households were living in fuel poverty – spending more than 10% of their income to keep warm.

The commission said it would work to ensure that government policy and delivery programmes took account of rural fuel poverty.

“We are developing a work programme to ensure that the needs of rural communities are taken into account in national climate change policy.”

Increasing the energy efficiency of hard-to-insulate rural homes would save money, improve health and reduce carbon emissions.

But the UK target to increase renewable energy generation to 15% by 2020 was equivalent to a seven-fold increase on 2008 levels.

This presented opportunities and challenges for rural communities.

Rural communities could work together to invest in renewable energy, become less dependent on fossil fuels and earn money from proposed feed-in tariffs.

But they faced challenges in agreeing appropriate sites, securing planning agreement and finding affordable technologies.

The commission said it would work to find ways to ensure rural communities benefited from renewable energy, and share good practice.

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