As young people, our futures are painted in fraught tones. Spiralling costs of living, an inaccessible housing market, climate change, and a global extinction disaster.
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As these crises worsen, the need for a just transition becomes increasingly apparent. Young people have been calling for climate justice for years, alongside Indigenous Peoples and other social rights activists. But, in recent times, as fires rage and the flood waters rise, our calls for action are being heeded.
Last year, the ACT Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity held an inquiry into renewable energy innovation in the territory. The inquiry aimed to determine avenues for establishing the ACT as a national hub for renewable energy innovation and as a global exporter of renewable energy knowledge.
We, alongside four other GreenLaw researchers, made several submissions and gave oral evidence to the inquiry advocating for the ACT to adopt a human rights centred approach to renewable energy reform, notably, through the funding and roll-out of community-scale batteries.
We believe that climate action has the capacity to shape our society for the better, to tackle inequality while also transitioning our economy to net zero emissions.
This opportunity is particularly stark in the energy space. For the first time in our modern history, we have the chance - and indeed the obligation - to fundamentally change our energy system from fossil fuels to renewable energies. But embedded in that transition is another choice. The choice whether to create new democratic energy systems, with community-owned renewable power, or to allow energy oligarchs to perpetuate inequality and energy insecurity.
That latter choice is about which systems we invest in and who benefits from renewable energy innovation for decades to come, as both producers and consumers of energy. Community-owned renewable power benefits everyone by allowing us to share and profit from the power we produce. This can be from either community-owned power, like the SolarShare Farm, or our rooftop systems. Furthermore, community-owned renewables ensure that our neighbours, friends, and families are all able to access clean, affordable energy.
How we transition to net zero emissions also impacts upon our human rights. Our human right to a healthy environment; to breathe clean air free from fossil fuel pollution and to be able to enjoy our nature reserves without fear of climate-induced disasters. Our human right to adequate shelter by having proper and affordable heating during Canberra winters, without comprising our respiratory health because of fracked gas in our homes.
And the inquiry listened to us.
On June 29, 2022, the inquiry handed down its findings relating to renewable energy innovation in the ACT. Those findings call on the ACT government to incorporate the social and human dimensions of energy reform into their policies, and ensure renewable energy innovation in the ACT is part of a just transition to a net zero emissions society. The inquiry also made a series of recommendations relating to technological innovation in the ACT, from electric vehicles to hydrogen infrastructure.
We call on the ACT government to seriously consider, adopt and implement both the technical and aspirational recommendations of the inquiry. Indeed, they strengthen each other.
For example, neighbourhood (community-scale) batteries will improve solar power storage across the grid, and therefore, allow for increased rooftop solar penetration in the ACT. However, community-scale batteries also have a range of benefits not captured in a market context. These benefits include providing an avenue for more Canberrans to participate in the energy market thereby accessing lower energy bills, and allowing us all to contribute to climate action.
As young people, we are used to looking to the horizon with fears for the world we will inherit.
But the ACT government can, and must, contribute to the creation of renewable energy systems that change that future, and alter the course of climate change as well as existing inequalities in our society.
That is the investment in our future that we need.
- Annika Reynolds is the CEO and founder of GreenLaw, and the youth chair of Environment and Human Rights, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. Peta Bulling is a senior researcher at GreenLaw, and a biodiversity and human rights activist.
