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Australia’s clean energy transition is accelerating but First Nations participation and benefit continues to lag behind the pace and scale of change.

Place-based approaches to renewable energy transitions tailor solutions to specific social, cultural, economic and ecological contexts inherent to particular localities.

Drawing on transformative energy justice frameworks and approaches, we argue that place-based framings and interpretations of impacts of community renewable energy projects provide the means to centre Indigenous worldviews, observations and experiences of justice associated with these projects.

This co-created study draws on interviews with knowledge holders in 14 First Nations across the Province of British Columbia (BC), Canada.

Interview participants shared experiences and observations on both the process (community engagement) and outcome (impacts and benefits) dimensions of 36 operational and planned renewable energy projects, pointing to a rich diversity of social, political, material, economic, ecological and relational impacts.

Across a wide range of project sizes and technologies, the findings indicate that deep community engagement and the collective decisions for allocation of revenues mediate the positive and transformative impacts experienced by the community.

Taken collectively, these findings show that First Nations approaches to developing projects are place-based, ensuring a wide range of impacts to the community that can collectively contribute to transformative change.

In the broader context of systematic neglect of social, environmental and justice-oriented values in public policy making, and amidst widespread failure of ‘decide-announce-defend’ approaches to achieving social acceptance for renewable energy projects, this study demonstrates what distinguishes place-based approaches in practice, and how they deliver transformative outcomes for First Nations.

Policy, project and resource allocation decisions should reflect the diverse impacts and transformative outcomes of renewable energy projects in First Nations contexts.

We conclude that embedding place-based approaches in institutional arrangements, policy and project design is critical to providing economic opportunities to First Nations without discrimination under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, alongside meeting BC’s power needs and decarbonisation goals.

Authors: Christina E Hoicka, Anna Berka, Sara Chitsaz, Kayla Klym, Adam Regier and Megan Macdonald, Impacts and place-based approaches to transformative energy justice for First Nations, 17 February 2026, IOP Publishing Ltd, Environmental Research: Energy, Volume 3, Number 1

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The sovereignty of federally recognised Tribal Nations in the United States is codified in the US Constitution, federal law, and myriad treaty agreements, but the realities of sovereignty are complex.

Federal law has obfuscated Tribal sovereignty, complicating and restricting Tribally owned or managed energy development on Tribal land.

This paper discusses the divergence of Western and Indigenous concepts of sovereignty and analyses federal Tribal law and policy and its implications for Tribal energy development, making two contributions.

The first is to explore whether past federal laws and policies have supported or impeded the ability of Tribal Nations to develop energy projects and utilise energy resources on Tribals lands in the US.

The second is to explore how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) altered US federal energy policy in the context of Tribal energy sovereignty, assessing the impacts of US federal Tribal policy on Tribal sovereignty in terms of de recto (by right), de facto (in fact), or de jure (by law).

This research reveals that the IRA encouraged de facto Tribal energy sovereignty, advancing Tribal self-determination by reducing dependence, increasing benefits, and empowering decision making for Tribal Nations in the US.

Authors: Don Lee, Chelsea Schelly, The Inflation Reduction Act: Implications for energy development, energy sovereignty, and self-determination for federally recognized Tribal Nations in the US, Energy Policy, Volume 205, 2025

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In Australia, prepayment is ubiquitous in remote First Nations communities but is rarely used or banned in other locations.

Prepayment for household electricity services disrupts energy access by privatising the risks of disconnection within vulnerable households, justifying critical appraisal of the rationalisations and policy settings for its use.

Despite a growing literature documenting the potential harms of prepay and its concentration in remote and predominantly Indigenous households, these issues have received limited attention in Australian energy policy debates.

To progress the policy discourse, this qualitative study examines the policy origins and dominant rationales for use of prepay in different parts of Australia using causal process tracing.

Drawing on an original dataset of over 1650 publicly accessible documents from the period 1973–2023, a chronology is established showing that prepay systems were first introduced in remote Indigenous communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory with subsequent use in varying contexts in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.

Policy motivations differ between grid interconnected regions and remote Indigenous settlements.

In interconnected regions, prepay emerged as a voluntary product associated with competitive retail market reforms and was subject to varying degrees of regulation but is now either banned or no longer offered by retailers.

By contrast, in remote and some urban Indigenous communities prepay endures as a default or mandatory payment system – highlighting how settler colonial energy policies have consistently prioritised supply-side objectives within under-served communities subject to past and present injustices including pervasive energy insecurity.

Author: Sally Wilson, Disrupting household energy rights: Examining the policy origins of prepayment for electricity services in Australia, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 124, 2025,

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This study offers insights from a unique case of meso-level collective action by First Nations in British Columbia, Canada, aimed at transformative electricity institutional change.

We collate regulatory and advocacy text to characterise the range of proposed First Nation Power Authority models and their placement along a continuum of conformative to transformative energy justice.

Interviews with knowledge holders from 14 First Nations offer insight into motivations behind transformative change and how it is shaped by historical injustice alongside practical community objectives around energy security, resilience, and community development.

First Nations narratives of electricity transformation are aligned with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and with goals of self-determination and incorporate relational and regional approaches.

These findings validate theoretical frameworks of transformational energy justice (Avelino et al., 2024; Elmallah et al., 2022).

Much of the groundwork has been laid by the collective and the regulator, while new legislation has opened a window of opportunity to increase Indigenous participation and control in the electricity sector.

Authors: Christina E. Hoicka, Adam Regier, Anna L. Berka, Sara Chitsaz, Kayla Klym, “Stretch and transform” for energy justice: Indigenous advocacy for institutional transformative change of electricity in British Columbia, Canada, Energy Policy, Volume 202, 2025

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Energy communities or cooperatives enable differing communities to guide the development of new net zero energy technologies and attract social and economic benefits including infrastructure ownership, as in the example of Maori energy trusts in New Zealand or the Canadian Indigenous Clean Energy initiative.

These energy cooperative initiatives are a crucial piece of the decarbonisation puzzle but represent complex legal structures to enable community collaboration and accelerate decarbonisation.

Building on the increasing focus on how to effectively conceptualise and regulate energy cooperatives, this article introduces a new framework underpinned by the seven pillars of energy cooperation related to the development and operation of energy communities pursuant to energy justice.

Our study addresses the capacity of cooperatives to resolve, incorporate, and act in accordance with energy justice principles, and highlights the unique character of energy communities and energy cooperatives, discussing the need to provide them with a novel policy approach.

To satisfy these needs, the paper offers an original conceptual framework based on a comparative evaluation of the International Cooperative Alliance’s principles juxtaposed with the tenets of energy justice.

The examination is enriched by references to practical case studies of cooperative enterprises and movements situated in cooperative theory and the growing corpus of energy law literature examining energy cooperatives and energy communities.

As a result, this paper introduces the seven pillars of energy cooperation driven by energy justice: participation, independence, responsibility, solidarity, security, decentralisation, and education.

The pillars may serve as relevant principles for regulatory reform to effectively create and manage energy cooperatives and energy communities as multifaceted entities providing a potentially powerful pathway for states and communities to reduce their emissions to net zero by 2050.

Authors: Madeline Taylor, Nischala McDonnell, Peter Davies & Stefan Trück. (2025) Scaling agrivoltaics: planning, legal, and market pathways to readiness. Sustainability Science 20:4, pages 1499-1517.

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Australia’s story of the energy transition is most visible in the uptake of large-scale solar and wind farms or now prolific rooftop solar. Less visible is the role of renewable energy in efforts to reinstate life and land to Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

This paper tells the story of off-grid remote renewable energy rollouts in Indigenous communities in Northern Australia.

While the analysis is specific to Australia, it has broader lessons about incorporating Indigenous governance approaches into renewable energy rollouts so that Indigenous communities in financially constrained contexts share in the intended benefit of installed electricity systems.

Using energy sociotechnical imaginaries and energy justice, the paper explores the emergence, impact and contemporary legacy of Bushlight (2002–2013), a government funded renewable energy program delivered by an Indigenous-led non-profit organisation.

Bushlight was part of Australia’s early efforts to build its renewable energy sector, operating with a dual mandate of decarbonisation and community development in Indigenous Homelands communities.

The analysis of sociotechnical imaginaries explains how collectives come together to anticipate and address distributional justice issues through policy development and how these collectives and their vision for renewable energy evolve through implementation.

Tracing how these imaginaries extend into the present highlights the influence of broader socio-political dynamics shaping Indigenous-settler-colonial relations.

The paper’s findings have important implications for decolonisation, supporting Indigenous people to live on and care for Country while retaining their right to essential services.

This paper serves as a reminder that financial constraints can manifest unevenly within as well as between geopolitical segments. Governance approaches need to reflect this internal unevenness and can assist in addressing this unevenness through renewable energy rollouts.

Secondly, this case highlights the influence of governance and regulation in supporting equitable private sector delivery and operation of renewable energy power systems in complex and financially constrained contexts within high income national contexts. This serves as a reminder for donors, policy makers and private sector of the risks that accompany uncritically replicating energy supply arrangements in high income countries, often adopted by multi-lateral finance institutions and donors in the global south.

Thirdly, this paper reflects on energy policy and implementation as a force for supporting or weakening Citizen-State relations.

Finally, this paper provides an account of electrification through renewable energy rollouts that centred on Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. In doing so, this contributes to a broader understanding of electrification beyond Atlantic-centred “global” histories.

Author: Anna Cain, Australian National University, College of Engineering and Computing and Cybernetics, ACT, Australia, published online 25 January 2024.

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As the world seeks to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production and consumption to mitigate the impacts of climate change, communities that rely on coal, oil, and natural gas production as economic drivers are likely to face challenges.

Although extensive work has identified pathways towards a “just transition” in numerous contexts, very little has been written to understand the opportunities and challenges for fossil fuel-producing Native nations in a transition towards a net-zero emissions future.

In theory, Native American nations have control over the decisions that shape their energy futures because of their sovereign status. In practice, however, numerous factors limit the exercise of that sovereignty.

In this review, we assess the major barriers to tribal energy sovereignty, discuss historical and ongoing efforts to secure it, and highlight the tools that can further ensure the exercise of tribal energy sovereignty in the context of an energy transition. We also discuss recent policy developments and identify cases where Native nations are taking innovative approaches to govern the future of energy development on their lands.

Authors: Daniel Raimi, Alana Davicino, Securing energy sovereignty: A review of key barriers and opportunities for energy-producing Native nations in the United States, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 107, 2024

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Reconciliation is about the genuine restructuring and transformation of the relationships between Indigenous and settler people.

Although renewable energy has not been inherently positive for Indigenous peoples, Indigenous communities in Canada have been participating in renewable energy production, which presents a potential pathway to reconciliation, climate change mitigation and a just energy transition.

This study explores whether and to what extent community energy—defined by deep engagement in process, as well as local and collective benefits—relates to elements of participation associated with reconciliation, both conceptually and empirically.

A conceptual framework based in community energy was developed to characterise and analyse 194 renewable energy projects associated with Indigenous communities. This framework considered ‘community’ as belonging to traditional land, places where Indigenous people live, and as local authority, such as the Indigenous political organisation of a settlement or reserve. Projects were examined by legal form, project location, and control.

The findings do not provide strong indications of reconciliation.

We suggest that one pathway to reconciliation is equity ownership, which has risen over time, although most projects located on traditional territories and Indigenous communities generally have minority or no ownership. There were no projects associated with Métis communities, and only 6 associated with Inuit communities.

Institutional change requires implementation of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and extensive policy supports.

Authors: Christina E. Hoicka, Katarina Savic, Alicia Campney, Reconciliation through renewable energy? A survey of Indigenous communities, involvement, and peoples in Canada, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 74, 2021

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