Integrating energy justice with community climate action planning

Decarbonisation of energy technologies is essential to meet climate change targets, however, this process has the potential to generate new or further emphasize pre-existing inequalities within society. By ensuring a low carbon energy transition is sustainable and equitable, trade-offs and co-benefits between decarbonisation and other U.S. policy objectives can be achieved. This is important as many communities are in the process of developing or updating their climate action plans (CAPs). The ‘success’ of a CAP is often measured against the greenhouse gas emission forecast for a baseline year and does not consider the wider implications in terms of environmental impacts or impacts to the individuals it directly affects.

We present a theoretical framework to aid decision makers to ensure energy justice is incorporated when designing CAPs. This framework expands on several key principles incorporated into the tenets of energy justice. These principles include energy availability, reliability and affordability, high-quality employment, access to information, objective governance, intersectional responsibility, intra-generational equity, intergenerational equity, and due process. This framework aims to reduce the disproportional burdens of transitioning towards a low carbon energy future by understanding why these key principles should be integrated into new and amended CAPs.