Just Energy Transition and Economic Transformation

A community-led approach to the just energy transition

Across the world, we are confronting the dramatic consequences of industrial-era climate change (from extreme droughts to floods and heatwaves), which are displacing communities, destroying their livelihoods, and threatening ecosystems.

To mitigate and avoid the worst effects of climate change, world leaders and policymakers have called for profound structural transformations and a “just energy transition”. Countries and institutions across the globe are now scaling up renewable and low-carbon energy solutions, while phasing out fossil fuels. But behind the slogans about “climate finance”, “green growth” and “sustainability”, the current approach to the just energy transition is marred with contradictions, as it has been used as a smokescreen to keep pursuing a neoliberal and extractivist approach.

Public development banks (PDBs) are promoting large-scale projects and false solutions – such as green hydrogen, geothermal or nuclear plants – which are neither green nor sustainable, as they violate human rights and contribute to environmental degradation. Often, rather than tackling the root causes of climate change, these projects are ending up exacerbating existing problems. And Global South communities, despite being the least responsible for the climate crisis, are being disproportionately impacted both by the impacts of climate change and the rush towards large-scale renewable energy projects or false solutions.

This is why our members and partners are calling for a community-led approach to the just energy transition and economic transformation, that recognizes communities as key decision-makers — with women and Indigenous Peoples at the forefront — and places their knowledge and priorities at the center of global energy policies.

Moreover, many communities across Africa and the Global South lack access to safe and sustainable energy so any work on just energy “transitions” must first center reliable, affordable, dignified and equitable energy access, especially for the most marginalized communities.