Subject: Energy, Power and Transition - State of Power 2024

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The fossil fuel based energy system has shaped capitalism and our geopolitical order. Our 12th State of Power report unveils the corporate and financial actors that underpin this order, the dangers of an unjust energy transition, lessons for movements of resistance, and the possibilities for transformative change.

Read the full report

Infographics

For this State of Power report understanding the dynamics of global energy consumption, control and transition is crucial. This series of infographics delves into these issues. Join us as we unravel the complex threads of the global energy landscape.

Who uses energy?

Who controls energy?

Who controls the energy transition?

Essays

Power switch: Building a just energy transition in an age of corporate and imperial power

Interview with Tim Mitchell, Thea Riofrancos and Ozzi Warwick

Energy based on fossil fuels is at the heart of a capitalist system that has concentrated power and wealth and threatens life on Earth. For our opening essay, TNI brought together an expert on Big Oil in the Middle East, an academic and activist working for a just energy transition, and a leading labour organiser in the oil industry in Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the dynamics of power in our current energy system and how to transition to a democratic, just and sustainable energy future

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Who profits from the green energy rush? Derisking and power relations in Africa’s renewable energy finance

Steffen Haag, Johanna Tunn, Tobias Kalt, Franziska Müller and Jenny Simon

Derisking is touted as the panacea for delivering finance for expanding renewable energy in the global South, but the experience of renewable energy projects in Senegal and Namibia shows that foreign investors are being furnished with excessive protections from risk with all the financial, social, regulatory and long-term costs imposed on states and marginalised communities.

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Negotiating a global energy crisis on our stairwell: lessons from Lebanon

Ebla Research Collective

Lebanon’s unprecedented economic and energy crisis may have prompted an explosion in small-scale solar energy systems and been heralded as an example of decentralised energy revolution, but a closer look shows it also widened inequality and divided communities. The solution to energy crises is ultimately best served in mobilising communities to collectively organise against the politics that cause them.

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Titanic Encounters: Geopolitics at the centre of energy transitions in the Sri Lanka

MeeNilankco Theiventhran & Kristian Stokke

Sri Lanka’s attempts to transition its energy system have been undermined by geopolitical competition, particularly between China and India, that have exploited the South Asian country’s weak neoliberal state and increased control of its energy infrastructure and economy.

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Power-off: Lessons from the struggles against Big Oil

Olivier Petitjean and Clemence Dubois

Big Oil has been the target of activists for more than two decades as the principal blockage to effective climate action. TNI interviewed two leading climate activists and researchers involved in the campaign against French multinational Total for their assessment of the campaigns and the possible next steps.

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Decarbonising Electricity: The costs of private sector-led renewable energy, and opportunities for alternatives in Australia, Germany and India

James Goodman and the Decarbonising Electricity research group

Renewable energy private firms are heralded as planetary saviours, yet in both the global North and South, the private-sector model is concentrating corporate power, undermining decarbonisation and dispossessing people of land and power. Yet the energy transition also opens up new possibilities with resistance and mobilisation pointing to a path of social control of renewables.

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State of Power 2024 Energy, Power and Transition

Edited by Nick Buxton

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State-Run Oil Companies and the Energy Transition: the case of Colombia’s Ecopetrol

Daniel Chavez and Lala Peñaranda

Colombia’s government is attempting through its state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol, to manage the decline of its oil extraction and to invest in transition to renewable energy. Its path to an energy transition is complex, but it has far more potential than a private-sector led model to be successful and equitable and it deserves international support.

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Energy revolution: a community-based approach to socio-ecological transformation

Tatiana Roa Avendaño y Eliana Carrillo Rodríguez

Energy transformations require going beyond technological change to rethinking our entire energy model so that it strengthens community control, minimises waste, increases access to healthy food and clean water, and regenerates our environment. Across Latin America, countless communities are building these energy alternatives that pave the way for real transformation.

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Socialising energy: lessons from radical housing campaigns in Germany

Communia collective

To regain lost momentum for an energy transition, climate and energy justice campaigners can learn from Berliners’ victorious referendum in support of a radical expropriation housing in 2021. This not only followed a strategy that put the costs on the corporations rather than people, it also goes beyond traditional public ownership to explore models of popular participation.

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Dual Power: Building a Movement for the Abolition of Fossil Capital and the Construction of Public Renewables

Ashley Dawson

The failure of a market-led clean energy revolution to either end fossil-fuel use or deliver equitable access to energy requires a dual strategy of confronting fossil-fuel capital and rapidly scaling up public renewables. The experience of the Minnesota valve turners, the Strike MoMA campaign and the remarkable success of the campaign for public renewables in New York provide inspiration.

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Facilitating energy flows, containing humans: Authoritarian energy transitions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region

Benjamin Schuetze, Elia El-Khazen, Charlotte Mueller, Philipp Wagner

Portrayed as a ‘green revolution’, European investments in renewables are extracting energy and profits, while bypassing local communities, strengthening authoritarian governments, increasing indebtedness and privatising economies.

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Reclaiming Power? Shifting geographies of extractivism in South Africa and visions for a just transition from below

Lisa Pier & Matthew Hlabane

South Africa’s Right to Say No campaign is raising critical questions about how to ensure that its energy transition does not leave behind communities devastated by toxic waste and excluded from the touted benefits of renewable energy.

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Waste to Energy: A privatised false solution

Vera Weghmann

In the face of a growing energy crisis and a surging global waste forecasted to increase by 70% by 2050, the Waste to Energy (WtE) industry emerges as a thriving yet controversial player. Explored in this essay are the power dynamics, environmental repercussions, and societal resistance surrounding WtE, examining case studies from India, Lebanon, Denmark, and Slovenia. The narrative delves into the industry's rapid expansion, its privatization challenges, and the potential for sustainable waste management under public control. The essay concludes with recommendations for policymakers and activists navigating the complex landscape of WtE.

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Podcast

Building a Just Energy Transition in an Age of Corporate and Imperial Power

Nick Buxton in conversation with Thea Riofrancos, Ozzi Warwick and Tim Mitchell

Is the Just Energy Transition underway, or is it a pipe dream?

The fossil fuel based energy system has shaped capitalism and our geopolitical order. On the 50th year of TNI's existence, the State of Power report unveils the corporate and financial actors that underpin this order, the dangers of an unjust energy transition, lessons for movements of resistance, and the possibilities for transformative change.

Listen to the podcast

Artist

Illustrating Energy, Power and Transition

For the 12th edition of the State of Power report, TNI collaborated with New York artist, Matt Rota, for captivating illustrations, while the graphics were crafted by Evan Clayburg. Discover these visuals in our stories across various social media platforms. Explore our TikTok, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

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Subject: Energy, Power and Transition - State of Power 2024

State of Power 2024 Energy, Power and Transition