The Problem

Humanity is facing a climate emergency. Ever-growing levels of fossil fuel use are stretching planetary limits by raising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution to dangerous levels. The current carbon-based energy system is negatively affecting the health and quality of life of the world’s population and is disproportionately affecting marginalized populations, who have contributed the least to the problem. Record global temperatures and warmer ocean temperatures are increasing the odds of devastating hurricanes and extreme rain events in some locations and prolonged droughts and wildfires in others. According to UNICEF, unchecked climate change will deprive many millions of children access to the bare necessities of life—food, clean air, and water—and may lead to increased conflict, migration, and quite possibly the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen.

Existing policies aimed at addressing climate change are primarily market-based, have not reduced global GHG emissions, and have often exacerbated existing social inequalities such as energy poverty (lack of access to energy services), racialized exposure to health risks, and decline of safe, secure, living-wage jobs. Support for such ineffective policies, or no policy at all, has been fueled in large part by the fossil fuel industry putting profits over planetary health and human wellbeing. Using their tremendous wealth and political influence, large corporations have blocked meaningful change by creating a false choice of “jobs versus the environment,” and sowing doubt and climate denial among the public. At the same time, the world is experiencing record levels of economic inequality, with workers’ rights and union representation under attack by many of the same corporations.

In what follows, we concisely summarize the research on climate change and mitigation efforts and then provide informed recommendations for social action and public policy solutions. Our focus is on the power generation sector as it represents the largest single contributor of GHG emissions globally and has been the sector most frequently targeted by public policy intended to reduce emissions. We argue that long-term strategies for a just transition to energy democracy are needed to address the interrelated, root causes of social, economic, and climate injustice. These strategies must be publicly driven and rooted in public ownership of the energy sector, if we are to have any realistic chance of avoiding very serious harms due to climate change.