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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Thank you !
I like your post so much! But I think the problem is about the accessibility of solar energy for exemple. I mean , I would like to use Solar power but in france, it take time to make it accessible to everyone sadly! I am simply a tenant and I cannot install a solar panel for my small apartment. So I try to find some new solutions! Because you know... my electricity bill give me headache ;) . I discover "solpad" and post an article about this. Tell me your opinion about it!!
https://steemit.com/technology/@thesweetdynamik/an-unprecedented-sustainable-energy-solution-to-save-some-money-une-nouvelles-solution-pour-faire-des-economies-d-energie
Merci
En France, le plus simple est de vous abonner chez Enercoop
http://www.enercoop.fr/
Vous pouvez également participez à
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i def agree free energy should have previously been, and currently be the push for all major governments on the face of the planet because withthe technologies available today there is no reason other than the current world governments trying to hoard and manipulate the power structor of the world, which a major player of is Energy. Specifically CRUDE OIL!!!!!
With the increasingly diminished returns of energy gathering activities such as oil fracking (not to mention the environmental cost), there will be little choice but to find and use other forms of energy. This is a good thing, but it will not be an easy transition.
You are correct, www.solarcoin.org are rewarding producers of solar PV with SolarCoin to help support the energy transition
That is wonderful. I suspect that we are about to hear of new technologies that will either compliment, or even surpass solar power. Keep an eye on the headlines over the next few years. If my sources are correct, energy production is going to take a huge leap forward very soon - and silver may be just as important for this new technology, as it is for solar panels.
Great article. I would like to see that happen
I would like to see that happen i next few years
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Interesting post, i was wondering if any of you have ever heard of 'Blockcharge' - the link below. I tried searching for more information about it but this is the only thing i could find, thus making me doubt if this is true at all...