This two-day event brought together a deliberately diverse group of people and organisations – from the climate movement, from the cooperative movement, from the wider solidarity economy and labour movements – to discuss, explore and challenge the potential role of cooperation in underpinning effective community-led responses to the climate crisis. Responses that can not only enable us to take action to cut emissions, but also build the new civil society organisations and businesses that we need for a regenerative future, and do it in a just and fair way.
As the cost of living crisis bites, the deep inequalities in our society are increasingly plain to see. The need for a different approach – that builds inclusive economies and climate justice – has never been clearer or more urgent. This conference showed that effective solutions do already exist, built on sound values and principles, and that through wider cooperation and collaboration – across communities and social movements, between public, private and third sectors – it is possible to scale these out widely and quickly.
The event was made possible by a fantastic group of sponsor organisations. Our lead sponsor for the 2022 event was identity.coop – the global organisation that stewards and develops the .coop top level internet domain and the shared cooperative marque, the social brand of the worldwide cooperative economy. Our thanks to them for their support, and to all of our sponsors, who enabled us to bring people into the conference who otherwise could not have been there, voices often marginalised or excluded, and whose involvement greatly enriched the event.