SUMMARY: Professor Mark Swilling discusses the global renewable energy revolution, the public sector’s role in investment in renewables and how renewable energy has the potential to change social politics and economic power.
KEY FINDING / RECOMMENDATIONS: Prof Swilling believes community ownership of renewable energy is important. Countries such as Denmark and Germany, he notes, have had their renewable energy revolution driven by cooperatives. Policy shifts have occurred in favour of cooperatives. In South African what is lacking is community-based, public and inclusive ownership. A Just Transition will depend on the directionality of the renewable energy revolution, crucially an alternative to the corporate-driven ownership now taking place in South Africa and elsewhere.