What type of energy transformation do we envision?

This report outlines the costs of meeting predicted energy demand with 100% renewable energy to certain parts of the global south. While the technical feasibility of this vision is important, it is imperative that renewable energy policy is guided by certain principles which guarantee a just and sustainable energy system for all.
Energy is a necessary condition for a dignified life. We need energy for fuel and electricity to cook our food, to have habitable homes and workplaces in hot and cold places, to ensure that everyone has access to basic services like health and education, to communicate and travel and to share and access information via the internet. Yet according to the IEA, nearly 1.3 billion people – or one fifth of the world’s population – do not have access to electricity.
The current global energy system – the way we produce, distribute and consume energy – is unsustainable, unjust and harming communities, workers, the environment and the climate. This is fundamentally an issue of corporate and elite interests outweighing the rights of ordinary citizens and communities. When we refer to 100% renewable energy in this report we envision it prioritises and adheres to the following principles:

1. Provides energy access for all as a basic human right

Access to energy is a basic human right and a necessary condition of a dignified life. Everyone will have access to sufficient sustainable, clean, safe, affordable, reliable and appropriate energy to meet their energy requirements for a dignified life. This means adequate energy for:

• lighting, heating and cooking
• ensuring clean water supplies for adequate sanitation
• ensuring access to essential public services like hospitals and schools
• pumping water for irrigation and to run small-scale agricultural industries and other small businesses
• communication, entertainment, and climate-safe recreation.

2. Climate-safe and based on locally-appropriate, low-impact technologies

Energy will be generated from climate-safe sources with low social and environmental impacts. This means no energy sources that:
• are high carbon or produce significant quantities of other dangerous greenhouse gas emissions through their production, combustion, distribution, or the direct or indirect land use change that they give rise to abuse the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples
• result in deforestation or forest degradation
• result in the production of toxic waste
• result in significant air, land or water pollution
• deplete non-renewable resources.

Energy technologies will also be appropriate to the needs of the communities who are using them and to their local and regional environmental, economic, social and cultural contexts.

3. Under direct democratic control and governed in the public interest

Energy is a common good. In a just energy system energy infrastructure and resources are therefore under direct democratic control. Decisions about the production and use of energy:
• are democratic, participative, open and accountable
• prioritise social outcomes, including energy access, fairness, environmental sustainability, and dignified work
• are governed by the principle of subsidiarity, with decisions delegated to the most local and least centralised level possible, while also allowing for sub-regional, national and regional planning and coordination
• give adequate power to all directly-affected groups to influence decisions, including energy users, energy sector workers, and people who are excluded from energy systems
• respect the rights of communities to define their energy needs and how these needs are met in accordance with their cultures and ways of life, as long as these choices do not have destructive impacts on other people and communities.

Download the full report at http://www.foei.org/

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