On June 6, 2024, we held a National Expert workshop for the Hard-to-Reach Energy Users Task, as part of the Users TCP Executive Committee and Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) board meetings in Boston. As Phase 2 of our HTR Task is focusing on how to achieve a truly just energy system transition by elevating priority voices that were hidden, underserved or missed, we decided to hand over the facilitation and agenda setting of our hui (te reo Māori for workshop) to Indigenous communities from Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.
We discussed the importance of (re)building trusted relationships with Indigenous communities, and how to best support them in their energy transition journey. Maybe the most important insight was that Indigenous communities are best placed to (co)design and deliver programmes and interventions aimed at them. That means that utilities, government departments and researchers need to do more to empower those communities to join the decision-making table, starting with creating Indigenous liaison positions within their own organisations, and training and mentoring young Indigenous leaders to roll out energy transition programmes and interventions in their own communities, in their own ways.
We will continue to support and elevate Indigenous and other hidden communities and voices in this Task, as shown by our co-designed shared (draft) goal for Phase 2:
“In Phase 2 of the HTR Task, our shared goal is to identify, listen to, elevate, and empower priority voices*, so as to be guided by their experiences, insights, and needs, to achieve a truly just energy system transition for all. The just transition should build energy sovereignty, influence and resilience in those priority communities.”
Note: * Priority voices and communities are those who are currently hidden, missed, underserved or intentionally underinvested in by decision-makers. Examples are marginalised / forgotten (e.g., the disabled, remote Indigenous), stigmatised / ostracised (e.g., refugees, ethnic minorities, welfare recipients), and/or illegalised / criminalised (e.g., the homeless, people suffering from substance abuse) groups, but also hidden groups in the commercial sector (e.g., home-based micro businesses), the “squeezed middle” (with mid-high incomes but no assets), and those households with total high energy consumption where only a single bill payer is known (e.g., student flatters, overcrowded households). These examples are not exhaustive.
You can read more about the hui here: Summary meeting minutes Boston 2024 National Expert Hui
