Keywords

1 Introduction

Energy justice is a growing theory in the literature. Journal publications, special issues, chapters, books, and conferences where energy justice is discussed are concrete proof of this trend. Its popularity gives it a greater voice in the current dialogue on the energy transformation and makes it more audible in the mainstream with its key message, which is making the energy transition just, where no one is left behind.

Energy justice theory enables reaching this postulate, as it has a possibility of assessing energy policiesFootnote 1 and their toolsFootnote 2 within its dimensions.Footnote 3 This evokes an issue of energy justice leaving the academic realm to reach the real world where the theory becomes the practice. To make it happen, and to enforce energy justice in the legal system, meeting a cascade of the following four conditions is needed. As these are actions, let us write them as activities: (1) defining; (2) recognizing; (3) enhancing; and (4) supervising.

2 Exploring the Four Conditions of Energy Justice

First, before moving to recognition, we need to find a common ground for defining what energy justice is. The mentioned literature offers us some solutions; however, the number of available definitions does not necessarily affect their quality. In this “bird chirping”, hearing the canary and not the crown is not an easy task. Moreover, we may like one definition, and dislike another, we may find one correct, another wrong, and different factors like our background, experience, or even spoken language will matter.

This leads to the second point, i.e., recognizing energy justice in legislation. Once energy justice appears in a legal act, among the first issues that need to be legally covered, would be defining it. To do this, one should refer to expert knowledge and the already mentioned literature, reviewing it and determining a legal definition. Solutions like establishing an expert panel for the needs of legal recognition of energy justice seem to be a good idea. What matters is the power and level at which energy justice should be introduced to the legal system.

Preferably, energy justice should be covered by an item of legislation that has a binding character, such as a law that would be passed in a formal parliamentary procedure (act, bill, etc.), signed by a representative of the executive branch (head of a country, president, etc.), and then published in an official state bulletin (journal of laws, official gazette, etc.). Apart from national legislation, there is a need for an international framework and for moving the academic discussions to the level of policy talks that can result in global arrangements on energy justice, with expert panels involved in creating legal frameworks such as a Protocol on Energy Justice (being a part of existing frameworks like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Climate Change Conference—Conferences of Parties, COP) or moving even further, by establishing a separate regime on energy justice with a Convention on Energy Justice.

The latter clearly shows what it means that energy justice will appear in legislation. In practice, this concerns energy justice having legal coverage. Apart from an international regime on energy justice, one can imagine a separate legal act at a national level, like the Act on Energy Justice, that will establish a framework for enhancing it nationally. This is, however, a maximum scenario, while experience rather teaches that step-by-step solutions are preferable, as they are easier to implement, given the difficulties in reaching needed majorities, and so acceptance for nonconventional approaches in law.

Hence, in practice, the element brought by the energy justice theory, like its five dimensions, could be observed in different legal provisions and then assessed from this theory’s point of view, e.g., by evaluating if a given legal act meets the principles of distributive energy justice.Footnote 4 This requires conducting an energy justice test based on a scrutiny of a specific legislation with a lead question driving this evaluation: “does this law enable reaching energy justice?”. If the answer is yes, the following basic questions should be addressed: “to what extent?”, “how quickly?”, “how broadly?”, “how deeply?”, and “how costly?”. The mentioned different legal provisions usually cover such fields as reduction of emissions, promotion of renewable energy, enhancing energy efficiency, or addressing energy poverty, and so on.

Third, energy justice, defined and recognized in law, would need tools for enhancing it—without them it would be powerless. This especially concerns the possibility of launching a legal action on its basis. Here, different ways are possible, anchored in both private and public regimes. In terms of the first, acts against energy justice, e.g., its procedural or restorative dimensions,Footnote 5 would imply a possibility of launching a legal action against those breaching energy justice, just on the basis of energy justice.

In this way, energy justice would act like a general clause in the same way as already established environmental law clauses like the polluter pay principle. In this way, courts would implement energy justice via protecting human rights.Footnote 6 Regarding the public regime, one can imagine applying a criminal regime when a breach would be noticed (like, e.g., energy frauds hurting energy consumers); however, the nature of penal law would require a more specific legal framework than just general non-compliance with energy justice. This gives rise to a fourth point—supervision.

3 Conclusion—Next Steps

Apart from the possibility of filing a lawsuit based on a breach of energy justice, the binding character of legislation introduced for its needs should imply the establishment of an authority responsible for monitoring and enforcing the legal framework on energy justice—supervising. This could be a regulatory authority of a day-watcher type, an active observer, but not an active participant, always ready to intervene when needed.Footnote 7 In this way, a general non-compliance with energy justice could go under the assessment of the established regulatory authority that could impose an administrative fine for non-compliance. Alternatively, this could be an energy ombudsman created for the needs of protecting energy justice and its stakeholders, especially those vulnerable.

In 2023, enforcing energy justice through the legal system seems to be a matter of the near future. The literature and research offer some solutions; however, a solid legal analysis is needed, and concrete proposals should be presented to the members of governments and parliaments. It may be the case that this will require a broader approach, in which a new social contract should be established, since there has been a lack of collaboration among stakeholders for a long time,Footnote 8 and the energy business has been full of “pirates”, “snakes”, and “profiteers”.Footnote 9

The sooner it starts, the better, as action on energy justice is needed now. This should be accompanied by legal education on energy justice, as nowadays many professionals, including lawyers, researchers, and reviewers, do not really know what energy justice is. It is also an issue that the authors address energy justice without acknowledging what has already been discussed, while covering the same problems and topics.Footnote 10 This makes the debate harder, because it erodes its foundation—but it reveals the importance of conducting it in such a way as to connect with the broadest possible audiences.