The world’s current energy system – the way we produce, distribute and consume energy – is unsustainable, unjust and harms communities, workers, the environment and the climate. Friends of the Earth International’s new report demonstrates why a just, sustainable, climate-safe energy system is more urgent than ever.

Download the full report Good Energy, Bad Energy here (PDF 17MB).

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Key points

Our current energy system is unsustainable, unjust, and harming communities, workers, the environment and the climate. This is fundamentally an issue of power: of corporate and elite power and interests outweighing the power of ordinary citizens and communities.

The destructive energy sources on which the world current relies are driving climate change and many social and environmental problems and conflicts, including land grabbing, pollution, deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems, human rights abuses, health problems and premature deaths, and unsafe, insecure jobs and the rupture and collapse of local economies.

Friends of the Earth International believes that it is possible to build a climate-safe, just and sustainable energy system which ensures the basic right to energy for everyone and respects the rights and different ways of life of communities around the world. To get there we need to challenge corporate power and exert real democratic control over the energy decisions of our governments.

Friends of the Earth International believes that it is possible to build a climate-safe, just and sustainable energy system which ensures the basic right to energy for everyone and respects the rights and different ways of life of communities around the world. To get there we need to challenge corporate power and exert real democratic control over the energy decisions of our governments. We urgently need to invest in locally-appropriate, climate-safe, affordable and low impact energy for all, and reduce energy dependence so that people don’t need much energy to meet their basic needs and live a good life.

We need to end new destructive energy projects and phase out existing destructive energy sources, all the while ensuring that the rights of affected communities and workers are respected and that their needs are provided for during the transition.

To make the transition happen we also need to tackle the trade and investment rules that prioritise corporations’ needs over those of people and the environment.

Our vision is guided by an idea called energy sovereignty. This is the right of people to have access to energy, and to choose sustainable energy sources and sustainable consumption patterns that will lead them towards sustainable societies.

Download the full report Good Energy, Bad Energy.

Read a summary of the report