What is energy democracy?

Energy democracy is a process. It is a way of winning a new energy system, a system that can:

• Protect workers’ rights and build secure jobs for the future
• Make Just Transitions real, that is a transition to a positive future
• Respond to community needs
• Make serious progress towards ending energy poverty globally
• Centre environmental sustainability
• Control and radically reduce carbon emissions
• Rapidly scale up renewable energy production

Many of the trade union members of Cooperative Power are also members of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. A commitment to energy democracy is in the DNA of Cooperative Power – it’s why our purposes are to combat the climate crisis, build democracy and alleviate poverty. We believe that to truly deal with any one of these issues you need to deal with all three of them.

We describe Cooperative Power’s role as helping to take the power back from big energy corporations because an energy transition can only occur if there is a decisive shift in power towards workers, communities and the public. This is energy democracy.