People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions: Designing for Fairness

How to ensure that transitions provide benefits and minimise costs is top of mind for many policymakers. Analysis from the recently released IEA report Strategies for Affordable and Fair Transitions shows that when all costs of delivering energy are considered, accelerating transitions brings a cheaper energy system: higher charges to pay off investments and financing are offset by much lower operating expenses. In other words, clean energy transitions will ultimately bring down costs for consumers.

However, making this shift to a clean energy system requires major investments, and a chief concern for policymakers is how to make these investments in ways that are not just affordable to some parts of the population, but that increase affordability, and ultimately access, of energy services and technology for all. Within these considerations, there is a second interrelated question: how to make policies fairer, how the outcomes can be more equitable, and how the costs and the benefits can be spread more equally through different segments of the population.  

These are key questions which the IEA’s new Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions: Designing for Fairness will explore in the coming months.

This webinar will mark the official launch of the new Global Commission and bring together key experts to explore the following questions:

• How can policymakers ensure clean energy policies do not disproportionately burden vulnerable populations? Which strategies can be used to identify and mitigate these risks during the policy design phase?
• Which measures have proven effective in making clean energy technologies more affordable for low-income communities, and how can these strategies be adapted to different country contexts with varying fiscal capacities?
• What measures and processes can be taken to mitigate the socio-economic impacts on communities and workers hit hardest by clean energy transitions and closure of high-emission industries? 

Agenda

Welcome and Introduction

• Brian Motherway, Head of Energy Efficiency and Inclusive Transitions, IEA
• Jane Cohen, Senior Programme Manager - People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions, IEA

IEA Presentation: ‘People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions: Designing for Fairness’

Expert Panel Discussion

Moderator: Jane Cohen

• André Dias, Director, Department of Social Policies and Universalisation of Access to Electricity, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil
• Diana Junquera, Director, Energy Industry and Just Transition, IndustriALL Global Union/Co-Director, Just Transition Centre, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
• Javier Pamplona, Energy Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain
• Kate Slevin, Executive Vice President, Regional Plan Association