ABSTRACT
Predominant approaches to renewable energy transition among high-energy societies do not adequately account for the Earth’s broader community of life nor sufficiently break from worldviews that have co-evolved with the fossil fuel age. Modes of energy provisioning and use organized around purposes of unending growth and accumulation effectively extend patterns of extraction and their corresponding injustices of the Anthropocene into the renewable age. As a step toward grounding and clarifying new foundations for just energy transitions, this chapter poses five questions for empowering regenerative energy systems in relationship with the broader communities of life: What is the energy system for? How does it work? How big is too big? What is fair? How should it be governed? Through this exploration, the chapter makes the case that diverse forms of energy must enable highly diverse energy communities. A key feature of this regenerative approach includes an orientation of energy transition pathways toward meeting the needs of all within planetary limits, conceptualized as a life ring for guiding renewable energy governance.
