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Dear reader,
It’s hot! If you’re anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, we hope you’ve managed to stay cool despite the record-setting high temperatures. This summer’s heat is part of an ongoing trend, as global temperature averages have continued to soar.
 Global heat map shows temperatures soaring across the planet during the summer of 2018 / Photo credit: Climate Reanalyzer/ Climate Change Institute/ University of Maine.
A substantial amount of research shows that recent heatwaves and hot summers are the outcome of human-caused climate change. There’s no denying it, the earth has a fever, and we are the ones causing it. Managing the crisis will require a transition away from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy.
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| The long arm of the energy regime |
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Tackling the energy regime is bound to face resistance from the status quo. Even state actors have found themselves limited in their capacity to act.
Trade agreements often make it difficult for them to respond to climate change as sovereign powers. The Energy Charter Treaty, in particular, is one such restrictive trade agreement that applies in nearly 50 countries, stretching from Western Europe through Central Asia to Japan.
The treaty grants energy-corporations enormous power over states and their energy systems, as it includes the ability to sue governments and to obstruct the transition from climate-wrecking fossil fuels towards renewable energy. Companies can be awarded dizzying sums in compensation for government actions that have allegedly damaged their investments.
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Also, attempts to mitigate the impacts of climate change have often led to an expansion in corporate influence. A recent example is Puerto Rico’s energy sector, which was considered the island’s first public industry, and was privatised in January 2018.
This came four months after hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the archipelago leaving thousands of people homeless or dead, and over 40 percent of the population without access to electricity and running water.
The 2017 hurricane season saw multiple category five hurricanes develop, of which both Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico. As Naomi Klein pointed out in her book The Shock Doctrine economic interests never waste a good crisis.
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| Moving towards energy democracy |
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However, if crisis is only another name for an opportunity, then the imperative for an energy transition presents a moment to rethink our current energy regime.
There is an opportunity to reimagine how energy might be produced, distributed and used in ways that are more democratic and socially just, as opposed to the dominant neoliberal structure that privileges corporate interests over public needs, and incessantly pursues profit and growth over environmental sustainability.
In essence, we have a chance to entrench energy democracy. As across the world communities are working to take back power over the energy sector, and assert public collective control.
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For example, in Cadiz, Spain, the local company Eléctrica de Cádiz now supplies 100 percent certified renewable energy, and is pioneering an alternative proposal for a ‘social discount’, which is expected to guarantee access to energy for more than 2,000 families each year.
 Eléctrica de Cádiz
The Power Shift Campaign in Mauritius is challenging the privately owned, non-renewable energy sector with a solar-powered, cooperative alternative, through which struggling farmers can improve local food production. These initiatives show that it is possible to pursue a transition to more sustainable energy, alongside a process of democratisation.
As autumn approaches and temperatures cool, the heat of this summer may easily fade from memory. However, as current trends show, extreme weather conditions are the new norm and an energy transition is imperative. Get informed about the alternatives that are out there. Below is a list of TNI co-authored books to get you started!
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By supporting our work you are contributing to changing towards a more equitable and just world.
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