The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties (COP28), which took place in Dubai from 30 November to 13 December 2023, made a modest yet significant contribution to energy justice by expressing a nuanced position on phasing out global fossil fuel development and use. While the COP recognised that urgent measures were needed to respond to the global climate emergency, it also acknowledged the perspective of hydrocarbon-rich countries that would potentially lose out from an inequitable abandonment of conventional energy resources. There is an opportunity to nurture and expand upon the energy justice contributions of COP28 when COP29 happens later this year from 11 to 22 November 2024 in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. COP29 can consolidate the gains of COP28 and significantly advance energy justice as a mainstream ethical concern.
Energy Justice as a Moral Framework
With its academic roots, energy justice is a concept open to differing interpretations due to its association with the inherently contentious nature of justice. The framework seeks to identify and conceptualise ethical and moral issues about energy by making these issues deserving of redress. It is both a normative and pragmatic tool utilised for settling questions of justice that arise in the extraction, consumption, and disposal of energy resources. Energy justice scholars tend to derive their understanding of the concept by outlining relevant dimensions of justice suitable to the kinds of energy problems with which they are engaged. These dimensions of justice are varied but mainly include distributive justice, which discusses the fair allocation of scarce resources in society; recognition justice, which looks at the underlying causes of failure of distribution, including how under-represented sections of society are impacted by maldistribution; procedural justice, which examines the legal and administrative steps for seeking redress; and global justice which is based on the idea of justice beyond national borders. Importantly, energy justice scholars identify and apply relevant principles of justice, which give meaning to the dimensions of justice, from a range of sources, including Western, Eastern, and African philosophies.
COP28 and the Building Blocks
At COP28 last year, one of the principal but vexatious energy justice questions concerned the potential discontinuance of fossil fuel usage. This question dominated proceedings at the COP, insinuating itself as the highlight of the yearly climate change conference. COP28 also stood out as the first COP in which parties to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change converged to review domestic climate actions and discuss ways to make these more potent where shortcomings existed. This accounting process is known as the global stocktake under the Paris Agreement. Discussions around the global stocktake were equally linked to the fossil fuel question. A related question involved how a potential discontinuance of fossil fuel usage would impact hydrocarbon-rich countries, especially those on the developing country spectrum, given those countries’ reliance on natural resources such as oil and gas for objectives like energy security.
The fossil fuel question divided parties and negotiators into two main blocs at the COP. One side argued that fossil fuels were the main drivers of global warming due to their greenhouse gas content. Remarkably, COP28 took off in the warmest year on record, with extreme weather events being an attribute of global warming. Without the abandonment of fossil fuels, the argument went, the world would continue to experience harmful climate change effects, all of which portend great disaster for planet Earth. The other side opposed fossil fuel abandonment because of its potential to produce injustices. This side argued that an inequitable and hasty abandonment of fossil fuels would harm countries and livelihoods linked to continued fossil fuel usage.
The resultant COP decision, the outcome of the first global stocktake, appeared to strike a balance between the opposing blocs. The decision acknowledged that profound cuts in greenhouse gas emissions were needed to attain the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. To achieve this, parties to the Paris Agreement must undertake global climate actions that align with principles of equity, such as states’ common but differentiated responsibilities. Some of these actions include tripling the global capacity of renewable energy; hastening efforts directed at abolishing unabated coal power; transitioning away from fossil fuel usage in the world’s energy systems in a fair manner, aiming for net zero by 2050; and discarding inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that have no impact on either energy poverty or just transitions. Furthermore, the decision also recognised the role of transitional fuels like natural gas in addressing energy security in the context of the ongoing energy transition.
COP29 and Consolidation
COP29 could build on the above COP28 outcomes to advance energy justice. Those outcomes contribute to achieving energy justice by taking a balanced position on the problematic question of fossil fuel phase-out. By committing states to increase renewable energy generation and consumption, transition away from fossil fuel utilisation, abolish unabated coal power, and discard inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, the COP decision essentially tolls the bell for ‘the beginning of the end’ of fossil fuels. It acknowledges the global climate emergency – that greenhouse gas emissions must peak soon and begin to fall steadily. Yet, it does not take an aggressive approach by calling for the interment of conventional energy use. Such an approach would have negated energy justice, which seeks to balance competing claims in society. It would have meant that the voices of developing countries with significant reserves of hydrocarbons would have been silenced. Despite the problems associated with phenomena such as the resource curse in the extractive sector, petroleum remains a key part of energy security strategies in many countries.
A cautionary note is nevertheless needed here. Although energy justice recognises that hydrocarbon-rich countries should not be left out in the lurch through the inequitable phasing out of fossil fuels, the concept equally acknowledges that these countries must fully transition away from fossil fuels at some point in future because of the irreversible threat posed by climate change. It also means that the insertion of natural gas as a transition fuel in the COP28 decision should not be seen as a blank cheque for hydrocarbon-rich countries to continue fossil fuel expansion without implementing an exit strategy. Hydrocarbon-rich countries must invariably play their part in abandoning fossil fuel usage in the long run. They could achieve this through domestic initiatives based on law, regulation, and policy. The international community could significantly help the weaning process by providing international support. Reflective of one idea of energy justice proposed along the contours of African communitarianism, this international support could come in the form of the distribution of financial, technological, and other capacity-based resources to hydrocarbon-rich countries to enable them to develop their clean energy potential, especially renewable energy.
COP29 may serve as a testing ground for bringing the above proposals to life, solidifying the gains made by COP28 on phasing out fuels and firmly entrenching energy justice.
