Letter: Empowering households on climate is win-win-win
From Helena Leurent, Director-General, Consumers International, London N1, UK
As well as accelerating climate change, fossil fuels pose a major threat to people’s health.
Crucially, this is also a matter of consumer rights. Far too many people are paying exorbitant prices for dirty fossil fuel energy that pollutes the air they breathe, often with no choice.
It’s time for us to properly inform consumers and enable them to take on a more active role. Consumers can now generate, use, store and share renewable energy using common technologies such as solar panels, batteries, smart meters and electric vehicles.
Empowering households to directly adopt these solutions is a win-win-win, delivering faster climate action, cleaner air and lower bills.
To ramp up clean energy technologies, we need fair financing and fair payments for exporting energy to the grid. Consumers need trusted information and advice to understand the solutions on offer.
This isn’t about expensive tech that is the preserve of affluent homes — it’s about unleashing a global transition to people-powered energy. If we put energy in the hands of consumers, our systems can become cleaner, more efficient, and resilient, while people enjoy lower energy bills, better air quality and greater peace of mind.
Letter originally published in the Financial Times accessible below.