Without people at its heart, the clean energy transition will fail

Global leaders and climate negotiators are gathering in Glasgow this coming week for the COP26 Climate Change Conference, carrying with them the world’s hopes for meaningful progress on international efforts to put global greenhouse emissions into rapid decline.

It’s important to remember the reason why cutting emissions is so vital. That reason is people. Extreme weather caused by climate change has already destroyed lives and livelihoods around the world – and those effects will continue to intensify as long as we keep pumping more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. But governments also need to be clear eyed about how efforts to cut emissions will affect people and communities – and do their utmost to address the negative impacts. This is one of the most critical issues in today’s debate about clean energy and climate action.

Reducing global emissions to net zero by 2050 is essential if we want to have a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C and avoiding its most catastrophic effects. This is crucial to avoid human suffering on a massive scale – especially among the poorest and most vulnerable populations. Because energy accounts for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, tackling climate change requires a radical transformation of the global energy system, bringing changes of unprecedented speed and scale.

Make sure more people benefit from the new global energy economy

As the IEA’s recent World Energy Outlook 2021 showed, we have already begun this journey: a new global energy economy is emerging, with technologies like solar, wind and electric vehicles going from strength to strength. This transformation will affect different countries around the globe in very different ways, depending on their local circumstances.

A successful and rapid transition to a cleaner and sustainable energy system will bring huge benefits. These include limiting the extent of climate-related disasters, reducing deadly air pollution, extending energy access to those who currently lack it, creating millions of new jobs and driving new innovations. But the change will also mean the decline of old, polluting industries, with significant impacts on workers and communities.

Millions more new jobs will be created globally by the rise of new clean energy industries than will be lost from the shrinking of fossil fuel industries. The IEA’s Sustainable Recovery Tracker estimates that current government spending plans are set to create demand for an additional 5 million jobs in clean energy globally by 2023. And by implementing policies to further accelerate the transition to clean energy, governments can catalyse the creation of millions more jobs.

But we cannot just talk about overall averages worldwide without recognising the risks of negative impacts on some people and communities. And there are no guarantees that the new jobs will be in or near the regions where the old jobs are lost.

Clean energy transitions must benefit people, by creating decent, well-paid jobs for many. And we must recognise the legitimate fears of many workers and communities who may see their current jobs disappear. Protecting, retraining and supporting such individuals and communities must be an absolute priority.

Key recommendations for how to move forward

This issue was one of several critical ones that have been the focus of the Global Commission on People-Centred Clean Energy Transitions, which I convened at the start of this year to explore how to enable citizens to benefit from the opportunities and navigate the disruptions created by clean energy transitions. The Global Commission, which is headed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and comprised of leading figures from around the world, just released its 12 key recommendations for policy makers who want to ensure they put people at their heart of their country’s clean energy transition. These recommendations are designed to inform the discussions taking place at COP26.

Underpinned by 150 case studies from over 50 countries, the recommendations aim to turn high-level principles into concrete action. Among the key points are a focus on ensuring policies create good quality, well-paid jobs, and bring widespread benefits to people in a fair and equitable way. They also emphasise the vital importance of protecting workers and communities that might be negatively affected by clean energy transitions. The recommendations also include advice on how to ensure all policies have equity and social inclusion at the heart of their design, and how to engage all citizens as active participants in transitions.

I encourage anyone interested in climate action and a successful transition to net zero emissions to read the recommendations – especially leading government figures and decision makers in other key areas such as industry, finance and civil society. The recommendations underscore that changes in the energy sector must enjoy public support and provide clear public benefits such as social and economic development and improvements quality of life. Clean energy transitions that fail to take account of this are most likely destined to fail or take place too slowly to reduce emissions quickly enough to achieve our shared climate goals.

I’d like to thank Prime Minister Frederiksen, who I had the honour of meeting in person on Thursday in Copenhagen, and all the members of the Global Commission for their valuable contributions. In particular, I’m grateful to Danish Climate and Energy Minister Dan Jørgensen, who chaired the Commission’s meetings, and Senegalese Energy and Petroleum Minister Sophie Gladima, who served as co-chair.

Make people part of net zero plans

One key area for urgent action is ending the injustice of energy poverty. It is shocking that hundreds of millions of people still lack basic energy services such as an electricity connection. The number of people without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa has risen since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, reversing several years of progress. Regaining momentum on this is particularly important: it is a moral imperative to bring modern energy to those that lack access. It must be an integral part of global efforts to expand the new clean energy economy.

In my view, governments must do more than make commitments to net zero or set goals for clean energy. They must also show how they will act. In particular, developing national strategies for making transitions people-centred and inclusive are just as important as the targets themselves.

For the IEA, the Global Commission’s recommendations and the best practices it has highlighted will be used to inform our work going forward.

The clean energy transition is for and about people. Without an accelerated transformation of the global energy system to bring emissions to net zero by 2050, people around the world face potentially disastrous levels of climate change. But in order to succeed, that transformation must have people’s best interests at its heart from the beginning.