Renewable Energy Study Released

14 March 2022

Just Transitions in the Renewable Energy Sector: An Environmental Lifecycle Perspective Study

On 9th March 2022, The Green House (TGH) released and presented a research study document, The Policy and Legal Elements for a Life Cycle Perspective to Support a Just Transition of the Energy Sector to Renewables, with programme partners groundWork and Earth Life Africa as the final part of a five year Just Energy Transition Exchange Programme funded by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC).

Global warming and fossil fuel depletion, as well as the goal to provide universal energy access, increasingly place the development of sustainable just energy systems at the top of political agendas around the world. The future will most likely mainly be powered by renewable energy sources. However, in order for the energy transition to be economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable and just, it calls for a rethinking of how the energy sector should be organised, financed, and which materials and technologies should be promoted. These considerations entail how the raw materials for the energy producing devices are acquired and processed, associated environmental impacts, working conditions, maintenance of the technologies, and how the waste from the energy producing devices is handled.

Chemical safety issues are crosscutting all aspects of the transition, as the transition should not just safeguard conditions for egalitarian economic growth and a good standard of living, but also improve protection of human health and environment. To that end, different energy systems have different impacts, throughout their life cycles. SSNC’s Department of Climate and Chemicals has been organising a series of capacity building activities on the transformation of the energy sector from fossil fuels to decentralised renewable systems.

The report focuses on renewable energy technologies (solar photovoltaic, wind and energy storage) and their impacts and actions needed to improve the circularity and sustainability of renewable energy technologies. The report is a useful tool in renewable energy advocacy work and may be used by community groups to engage with government on various platforms in the Just Transition and renewable energy space.

 

More Information (downloads):

• Report Summary
• Report
• Report Presentation