Just Transition: Ensuring Equity and Inclusion in Energy Reform
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The panel builds on Goal 7 and its targets, towards access to affordable and clean energy. The goal is to achieve universal access to electricity from sustainable and reliable sources by 2030, while energy is affordable. This same objective is also included: access to clean cooking.
If this objective is met, the just energy transition would be achieved, which implies that the change in the energy model is made towards more sustainable energies, maximizing social and economic benefits, and ensuring that no one is left behind. This approach integrates economic development and the decarbonization of the economy with the creation of decent jobs, technological innovation, the inclusion of communities (indigenous or other social demographic discrimination), gender equality, and attention to the most vulnerable groups with energy poverty, so that the transition benefits society as a whole.
Energy regulator has two fundamental missions: (a) to establish or propose regulations for the development of legal provisions aiming to achieve the energy and environmental policy objectives settled by governments (universal and affordable access to clean energy, guaranteeing its supply, competitiveness and environmental sustainability) in an efficient manner (i.e., at the lowest possible cost), and (b) to supervise the functioning of energy markets, as well as the performance of regulated or grid activities, to ensure that the rules are complied with.
Universal access to electricity allows consumers to have more hours of daylight, refrigeration and cooking of food, access to communications and culture – cellular, internet, TV, and HR. SS.-, and the incipient development of industry. On the other hand, clean cooking using induction cookers, natural gas or briquettes, avoids the use of vegetable residues and firewood, which create unhealthy atmospheres in homes. Likewise, the affordability of energy is linked to the establishment of efficient and cost-reflective tariffs, but in the case of vulnerable groups in risk of energy poverty, their purchasing power must be considered. These actions promote gender equity and avoid social demographic discrimination (indigenous peoples or depopulated areas).
The guarantee of energy supply is based on comprehensive energy planning, with the balanced development of networks and fuel/gas input terminals, as well as the provision of economic signals for the implementation of generation facilities for electricity production plants, gas storage, etc.
Energy competitiveness is embodied in the development of competitive national or regional energy markets (in which efficient resource allocations occur).
Environmental sustainability of energy aims to minimize its environmental impact and internalize the environmental costs (externalities) into final energy prices. For this reason, the integration of renewable energies into electricity systems is promoted, along with the development of renewable gases and biofuels, as well as the implementation of energy efficiency measures.
Finally, in order to carry out a just energy transition, it is important for energy regulators to collaborate and be involved in establishing rules that encourage the penetration of sustainable, renewable and efficient energy systems, which are accessible for all consumers and whose energy products are affordable for them, especially for the most vulnerable ones (even, in its case, incorporating tariffs with cross-subsidies for try to avoid energy poverty). On the other hand, the phasing out of fossil fuel use (coal, gas, and oil) may leave certain regions economically depressed, such as mining regions or those in which classic thermoelectric power plants are located, which would justify the provision of direct social measures in these territories, unless CO2 capture, use and storage systems are deployed.