There’s a lot of buzz around renewable energy, but according to the International Energy Agency, even if all government commitments to advance clean energy were met by 2035, renewables would still make up just 16 percent of global energy used.

As we face an environmental and climate crisis due to our overuse of fossil fuels, the time to act is now. But how do we move away from an unsustainable energy system and toward a sustainable one? Energy democracy—democratic control and social ownership over energy resources, infrastructure, and options—may offer a solution.

The following video, This is What Energy Democracy Looks Like, initially paints a bleak picture of our current global energy situation, and then offers energy democracy as a bright, viable alternative, shifting control over energy away from corporations and into the hands of workers, communities, and the public. As the video explains, a public sector approach to an energy transition is “grounded in the belief that people and communities should have the right to control their energy future.”

Created by Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, a “global, multi-sector initiative to advance democratic direction and control of energy,” the video is a reminder that we need to accelerate our move to sustainable energy. It’s also a vision for a future rooted in clean, community-owned, sustainable energy and it’s a general overview of how we might get there.

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