The U.K. government's climate strategy mirrors Donald Trump’s plans – essentially, to continue with business as usual. But despite this, around the British Isles renewables are growing and innovating, and a bottom-up green revolution is showing it can undercut a toxic national government.

Britain’s leaders, after all, stand firmly behind fracking. They are bulldozing local democracy and threatening ecological disaster, including climate change. Right now the government is facing legal actions for its failure to meet its climate change commitments.

Specifically, the Conservative regime spends more money subsidising fossil fuels, including North Sea oil, than it spends on developing renewables, whose subsidies are seeing constant cutbacks. There is speculation that the government will use Brexit to dodge its COP-21 Paris climate deal commitments. This summer, it may even greenlight further open cast coal mines.

Tidal Advances Despite London

Scotland continues to lead the world on renewables. In 2015, nearly 60 percent of the region's electricity was generated from green sources. On August 7, 2016, Scotland for the first time generated more renewable-produced electricity than it needed. Gales turbo-charged Scotland’s wind farms and caused an oil rig to run aground on the island of Lewis, northwest Scotland.

Climate change, as most of the world now understand, will cause more intense storms. That's good news for renewables and potentially disastrous for the severe weather-vulnerable fossil fuel industry, which is greatly responsible for the changing climate in the first place. Last year, Scotland set itself further ambitious targets to generate half of all its heat, transport and electricity needs from renewables.

Britain has the potential to turn the tide on climate change, with one of the largest tidal ranges anywhere. In Northern Ireland, one solo sea-turbine creates enough electricity to power 1,500 homes. Across the Irish Sea in Scotland, tidal power is now being generated with the installment of the first turbine off Caithness in the northeast – considered the world's most ambitious tidal scheme to date.

In Wales, the go-ahead has also been given to a tidal lagoon in Swansea. Its developers suggest that a larger lagoon, proposed in Cardiff, could power every home in Wales. Tidal power’s advantage is not only that it is not finite, like fossil fuels, but it is consistent: the tide turns every 6 hours and 13 minutes.

Despite London’s attack on green projects, even the U.K. as one entity is ratcheting up renewables. In 2015, a record 46 percent of UK energy came from renewable sources.

But this begs the question: with so much potential for carbon-free power, why is Westminster obsessed with oil?

The Oily Love-in

The big oil push in Theresa May’s Britain (like Trump’s America) is explained by the incestuous government-corporate ties that revolve particularly around oil, arms and banks, and are based on carbon assets. Climate research group Desmog UK mapped how those funding the Leave EU campaign have greatly infiltrated May’s government in the post-Brexit Westminster landscape.

Frackers have been main players in British government for half a decade. Additionally, London’s role as a global financial headquarters, particularly for carbon intense industries, means the corporate-political connections are especially toxic and hard to root out. So how is green energy still flourishing in the U.K.? There are at least six factors.

1. Devolution

The devolution of political power across the United Kingdom has created the opportunity for green policies beyond Westminster’s remit, most notably in Scotland, which moves towards full independence. The Nordic nation bumps up the overall U.K. figure, too. In 2015, about a quarter of all U.K. renewable generation came from above the border. Likewise the tidal lagoon plans were pushed by the Welsh Assembly, pressuring the U.K.-wide government to greenlight the project.

2. Resistance

Resistance against dirty energy also greatly explains why the London-driven "dash for gas" has stalled. Plans to frack Britain has met with strong local and national opposition. Protection camps have been set up that slowed the industry to a practical standstill. Similarly, direct action-led campaigns backed by local and national organizing have held back other climate-devastating projects, for instance, the third runway at Heathrow Airport.

3. Divestment and Re-investment

Britain Plc’s plans to frack and push dirty energy have also been undercut by divestment, with a reciprocal boom in green reinvestment. Last year, more money was invested in renewables than North Sea oil for the first time, which mirrors trends worldwide. Even within the narrow parameters of profit-driven capitalism, fossil fuel investments are likely to crash, causing smart investors to get out front. The multi-billion dollar divestment movement is driven by high profile campaigns led by universities, pension funds and others, which are blazing the way for more widespread action.

4. Simply better value for money

There is another winning argument for renewables versus fossil fuels: not only are they creating a safe climate future, but they are cheaper. This is both the case in Britain – for instance, measuring the profitability of onshore wind versus fossil fuels – and is now the case in at least 30 countries where solar and wind prices flat-out beat fossil fuels.

5. E.U. and Labour Legacies

It is also worth recognizing the positive legacy of both E.U. membership and the New Labour government (1997-2010) on homeland climate change policy. That legacy includes the 2008 Climate Act and funding for renewables. The fact is that New Labour helped drive international climate change. Tony Blair’s role alone pushing for the Iraq War – an unnecessary war to secure oil, which itself used gargantuan amounts of oil – belittles these climate achievements. The same can be said for New Labour’s support of international finance, a catalyst for big oil and other carbon intense ventures.

6. Other Autonomy Projects

But perhaps the biggest lesson is how political autonomy in the U.K. can enable a renewables and green energy revolution. Across Britain local energy schemes, especially energy cooperatives, mean people are taking power into their own hands. A parallel can be drawn with Scotland’s transformation beyond Westminster control. Three examples include the Brixton Energy Coop in South London, Here Comes the Sun which is pushing solar coops in the Midlands county Herefordshire, and community-run windfarms like those on the isles of Shetland, north Scotland.

With government support, green cooperatives and community energy are thriving in Scotland, showing that the effort tackling climate change can be driven from the bottom up – even when those at the wheels of power want to stay on the dirtiest energy sources.