In response to the increasingly serious impacts of climate change, people around the world are attempting to wrest control of energy resources from the powerful institutions that are hell-bent on driving humanity to the brink of extinction.

The growing popular movement to address the world's climate and economic crisis is widespread, and takes many forms. Yet all reflect an effort by concerned citizens to exercise more control over energy decisions and to self-determine a sustainable, life-supporting energy future.

While this effort is expressed in the movement to confront and stop increasingly extreme fossil-fuel extraction, shipment, and consumption, and to transition to a 100% renewable energy system, its most powerful expression is in advocating for an alternative to the corporate energy establishment's centralized renewable energy model. That alternative is a decentralized, democratized renewable energy model, one aligned with a climate justice strategy for addressing our current climate and economic crisis.

This new report from the Local Clean Energy Alliance and the Center for Social Inclusion lays out a vision for a democratized energy future that shifts the ownership of energy systems from corporations to communities. The authors propose a decentralized renewable energy platform, guided by principles of healthy communities, family-sustaining livelihoods, workforce development, and six other justice and sustainability values. The report outlines governance, finance, labor, and investment strategies to support this transition and provides a compendium of model policies and programs. 

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