The war in Ukraine, sky-high energy prices, climate change - many people and local businesses are seeing their wallets drained and facing an uncertain future these days, with nothing they can do about it. Or is there? What if there was a way for all of us - ordinary people - to take the energy transition into our own hands, build stronger and more resilient local communities and economies, and reduce inequalities between rural and urban areas, North and South, current and future generations? Dirk Vansintjan is the Co-founder and President of REScoop.eu, the European renewable energy cooperative federation, since 2013. He is also the Co-founder and a board member of REScoop Vlaanderen, the Flemish federation for renewable energy cooperatives and the Co-founder and Vice-president of REScoop.be, the Belgian federation for renewable energy cooperatives. He has also co-founded Molenforum-Vlaanderen, a federation of mill conservation societies in Flanders, as well as ODE-Vlaanderen and Ecopower, a renewable energy cooperative in Flanders This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx