Designing for fairness

The IEA convened the Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions: Designing for Fairness to develop actionable policy recommendations for energy and climate ministers and international decision makers on how to fully integrate the principle of fairness into the design of all clean energy policies.

The Commission is co-chaired by Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, European Commission, and Alexandre Silveira de Oliveira, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy. It comprises energy, climate and labour leaders from governments around the world, along with high-level representatives from international organisations and labour, Indigenous, youth and civil society groups.

Building on the recommendations issued in 2021 by the first Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions, members seek to identify strategies to ensure all energy transition policies reflect the principle of fairness and help improve energy affordability, drawing on international best practices and their own experiences. It also seeks to establish key mechanisms for monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of these policy tools, as well as the social impacts of transitions more broadly.

The launch of the Commission was first announced at the Global Summit on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions hosted by the IEA at its headquarters in April 2024. The IEA acts as the Commission’s main coordinator and administrative body. It also undertakes specific analysis or research as requested by the Commission’s members.

The Commission’s first output, Key policy design considerations for affordable and fair transitions, was launched at the first meeting of the Global Commission, taking place directly before the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial programme in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. This helped elevate key issues explored by the Commission, which was followed by the approval of the Principles for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions by G20 Energy Ministers. These principles were later endorsed by G20 Leaders at the final G20 Leaders Summit in Rio. 

In 2025, leading up to COP 30, as South Africa’s G20 Presidency is making just and inclusive energy transitions one of its priority areas, the Presidency invited the Global Commission to explore translating the G20 Principles for Just and Inclusive Transitions into policy design, implementation, and tracking through the development of a Blueprint for Action on Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions and an Indicators Handbook for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions.

The Blueprint for Action on Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions was launched at the meeting of the Global Commission on 12 June 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. In this Blueprint, the Global Commission developed a guidebook for governments and other stakeholders to design and implement clean energy policies in line with the G20 Principles in their own domestic contexts. The document includes more than sixty case studies representing different geographies and local contexts.

The Indicators Handbook for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions was launched at the meeting of the Global Commission on 9 October 2025 in Durban, South Africa as part of the official programme of the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial Meeting. Published as an official G20 Presidency document, the document is designed as a guidebook to support countries develop context-specific indicators to track, monitor and measure progress on the G20 Principles. Recognising the diversity of national energy systems and socio-economic contexts, the handbook does not offer a prescriptive framework with a defined set of indicators. Instead, it outlines a selection of indicators and evaluation methodologies, drawn from practical applications in 35 case studies, for each of the G20 principles.