Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm sorry I cannot be there in person.
I want to focus my comments on the societal impacts and opportunities of an electricity transition. An energy transition to mitigate and adapt to climate change is a societal transition. Most scenarios show that decarbonizing the energy sector in Canada means doubling to quadrupling the size of the 152-gigawatt electricity system to replace fossil fuels. This transition can be accelerated and supported if policies and institutions are designed based on principles of equity, justice and resilience across society and generations.
Canada has strengths to support a transition that is framed this way. These include a history of municipal and co-operative ownership of renewable electricity sources and infrastructures; indigenous leadership and advocacy to own and operate renewable electricity resources and infrastructures; the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, in law; and past experience in implementing policies to support partnerships between communities and industry.
There are also important barriers that need to be removed. These barriers that need to be removed include supports to fossil fuel use; the lack of supportive procurement policies that provide market access for renewable electricity and related infrastructure; the lack of ability for indigenous nations to own and operate their own electricity utilities; the lack of sufficient access to financial support, particularly for indigenous nations; the lack of representation of diversity in electricity and regional resource planning; and the lack of tracking of renewable electricity projects and infrastructures, particularly those that are owned and operated by communities, co-operatives and indigenous nations, and of who is impacted, which impedes analysis relevant to the creation of just policy. That is to say, currently we do not know very much about community-owned and community impacts of renewable electricity and infrastructure across Canada.
The European Union has developed policy frameworks for things called “citizen energy communities” and “renewable energy communities”. These frameworks bring together citizens, energy utilities and companies, and local governments to invest in renewable energy technologies and related infrastructure such that socio-economic benefits that flow to communities are prioritized. Canada should be investigating the value of adapting some of these policies here.
The implementation of these principles, enablers and this removal of barriers can accelerate a low-carbon energy transition to mitigate climate change by improving support and partnerships. Research shows that when fairness and transparency are present in decision-making for energy projects and electricity projects, and the impacts and benefits are distributed fairly to affected communities, social acceptance increases.
Intergenerational justice is critically required as a pillar in this transition. My research team at the University of Victoria prepared this statement: “We are a group of 10 youths, comprised of undergraduate, master's, Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers, who are concerned with the social and ecological impacts of Canada's current energy systems. We study intergenerational justice, energy democracy, the well-being of ecosystems and the impact that a low-carbon transition has on communities. We urge policy-makers to ensure that all communities impacted by changes to our energy system are empowered to participate in the entirety of the low-carbon energy transition. The energy transition must be more than renewable. It must be democratic, transparent and just.”
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.