Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) COP27 opened with a sobering remark by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “We’re on a ‘highway to climate hell”, he warned.
Indeed, as the COP27 negotiations unfold in Egypt, we are reminded that our fossil-based, centralized energy system is not fit for purpose. In the European Parliament’s COP27 resolution, for which I was a co-rapporteur, we call for the EU to mobilize billions both domestically and abroad, to wean our economies off fossil fuels, not least by phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and boosting the deployment of renewables.
To garner support for renewable energy and to speed up the energy transition, we must involve citizens directly. We know that by 2050, around 45% of renewable energy production in the EU could be coming from citizens, about a quarter of which could come through participation in cooperatives.
Throughout the history of UNFCCC negotiations, civil society has not only demanded a seat at the (climate) table, but they have also been calling for governments to empower their citizens to make sustainable choices. In the spirit of the International Cooperative principles, energy communities cultivate energy literacy and a holistic pedagogy around sustainability amongst their members.
Due to their grassroots nature, energy communities are trusted and are thus well-placed to propose concrete solutions to their members, like heat pumps, passive housing retrofits, and energy savings. In the Parliament’s COP27 resolution we explicitly make this link by calling for energy communities to support vulnerable households with solutions that address energy poverty (a pressing problem in Europe, now more than ever), at its roots. We need to keep building these bridges between the top institutions (be it the Parliament or the UNFCCC processes) and the local communities that are effecting change on the ground. Only by winning people’s hearts and minds can we truly get them on board for the radical sustainability transformations that are needed.
As the climate crisis pushes the world towards increasing unpredictability, decentralized, local-energy projects can build resilience against shocks, such as extreme weather phenomena or potential grid collapses. But beyond just the local, citizens should be able to participate at every scale and level of the energy transition. Throughout the COP negotiations we often observe massive multilateral energy deals emerging, such as the new Just Transition Energy Partnerships that will be announced during COP27.
Indeed, the urgency of the clean energy transition necessitates such large-scale, multi-billion projects. It is imperative though that we ensure that civil society not only participates, but actively benefits from these processes. Scotland, Denmark and the Netherlands are some of the countries that allow for citizens, Municipalities and energy communities to be stakeholders in large offshore wind parks.
Lastly, we know that to finance the energy transition an unprecedented mobilization of capital will be required. In the EU, citizens have the capacity to invest up to 240 billion euros toward the energy transition by 2030, a potential that can be partly unlocked through energy communities. On a global level, we must work to support community-led renewable energy projects across the Global South.
We need a new global financial architecture that channels adequate, predictable funding directly to the communities that most need it. And most importantly, this funding must be grants-based so as to not contribute to further debt distress on receiving countries or communities. This is a position strongly advocated by the LEFT group in the European Parliament, and which also features prominently in the Parliament’s COP27 resolution.
Beyond quick-techno fixes, the climate and energy crises call us to rethink the deeper social, economic and political relations that underlie the energy sector. Decentralized, local solutions, such as energy communities, might offer an insight into more just and inclusive energy futures.
