Remunicipalization, the Low-Carbon Transition, and Energy Democracy

摘要

The global remunicipalization wave has important potential for enhancing public engagement with climate change and achieving key targets in the form of low-carbon transition and renewable energy production. At its most progressive, it offers more democratic and participatory forms of public and collective ownership of essential resources such as water, energy, and transport that can challenge marketized and commodified values and provide more humane and environmentally driven agendas around social need and the common good. As the damaging effects of privatization become evident, beyond attempts by hard-pressed local governments to regain control of key services and assets, there also is the potential for the emergence of new and innovative models of public organization and ownership. The global extent of remunicipalization processes indicates the potential of the phenomenon across geographical boundaries and among very different national political-economic cultures and trajectories. The example of Germany's Rekommunalisierung process in the energy sector provides inspiration for what can be achieved with the right institutional structures, support mechanisms, and political mobilization. But it also highlights the continuing blockages that exist at the national level, where-as in many large and advanced countries-strong vested interests in privatized and corporatized carbon-based economic sectors can thwart the progress toward lower-carbon and clean energy transitions. On the positive side, remunicipalization highlights the potential for local actors to initiate important energy transition projects, as well as the trend toward growing trans-local collaboration among cities and towns to, in part, sidestep-but also push-national and state actors along more progressive pathways. Notwithstanding such developments, important battles remain to be fought in the years ahead, not least in tackling the continuing neo-liberal marketi-zation and competition agenda that dominates national and supranational government policy agendas within the European Union, the United Nations, and other key institutions. It is important to develop new and decentralized forms of public ownership that engage citizens and social movements in the battle against climate change from the bottom up, rather than allowing public agendas to be captured by vested interests. Older forms of centralized and top-down state ownership-such as those developed in France and the United Kingdom-effectively closed down public debate and set in train devastating nuclear and carbon-based solutions to the problem of energy supply. Although remunicipalization and other forms of local collective ownership, such as cooperatives, do not hold all the answers, and higher-level state strategic planning is still required, they do at least encourage public engagement, collective learning, and vibrant discussion about the future of the utility sectors and how they might be reorganized to tackle climate change.