Empowering Consumers through Clean Energy Transitions

“Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.”- David Suzuki. Whether we shop at a supermarket uptown or at a wholesale downtown we are all consumers. World Consumer Rights Day is observed on March 15 annually. The day is set aside to raise awareness regarding consumer rights and needs. Consumer rights mean that every person who buys products, goods, and services, has the right to have information on the quality, purity, price, and standard of those products. Did you know that you have the right to file a complaint from anywhere, anytime as a consumer? Most people are not aware of their rights as consumers, so by celebrating this day, we make others aware of the right to demand protection and stay safe from fraudulent activities in the marketplace. In Jamaica, a consumer who believes he or she has been wronged can file a complaint with the Consumer Affairs Commission. According to the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) social media page, they provide consumer protection in the supply of goods and services through consumer education, market surveillance and complaint resolution. World Consumer Rights Day is organized by Consumer International, the world´s federation of consumer organizations. This year’s theme is “Empowering consumers through clean energy transitions”. The international community is facing an energy crisis and as such consumers need to play a key role in driving the clean energy transition. Most economies are facing a deepening global energy crisis, which has a very significant impact especially on vulnerable consumers. As a result consumers are being called upon to adjust their spending habits in order to pay their energy bills. Increasing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy will also play a major part in averting catastrophic climate change. Consumer International´s surveys show that consumers and consumer organizations are strongly committed to influencing the issue. History of World Consumer Rights Day The ultimate goal of World Consumer Rights Day, observed annually on March 15, is to ensure consumers have all the necessary information to make an informed decision. The history of this day is an interesting one. Consumers International created and organizes World Consumer Rights Day annually. Consumers International is a global federation of consumer organizations founded in 1960, and the organization was founded as an independent and influential voice for consumers. World Consumer Rights Day has been celebrated since 1983, and the date of March 15 honors the speech made by U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to the U.S. Congress on March 15, 1962. In this speech, he coined the four fundamental consumer rights the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. World Consumer Rights Day has grown in popularity and is celebrated every year with a specific theme. Knowing our rights as consumers is crucial because we can only identify whether we are getting scammed or cheated if we know our consumer rights. Most importantly, we can raise our voices and take legal action against any product or service purchase that goes against our rights. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal The international community must be mindful that this year’s theme is linked to goal #7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal which addresses access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. According to the United Nations despite progress, there are still over 700 million people globally living in the dark and 2.4 billion cooking with harmful and polluting fuels. Although the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency have improved, progress is not fast enough to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7. The ongoing war in Ukraine continues to increase global energy prices as well as adding to energy insecurity in Europe and elsewhere. Reshaping Global Energy Russia’s invasion of Ukraine painstakingly reshaped the global market for oil and gas. Prior to the war, Europe’s largest economy Germany received much of its natural gas from Russia. Germany took the decision to install floating terminals which allowed it to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship and therefore weaned itself from Russian natural gas. Petrol prices went to a record high as oil and gas costs soar amid fears of a global economic shock from Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Alarmingly, the price of oil jumped to $139 a barrel at one point, the highest level for almost 14 years. In order to respond to the energy crisis, some European countries put in place transition plans to move to renewable energy and increase their investments in renewable and energy efficiency, while some other countries plan to bring about a resurgence of coal, putting the green transition at risk. The UN adds, between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of world population with access to electricity reached 91 per cent, up from 83 per cent, with 1.3 billion people gaining access. Unfortunately, some 733 million people are still in the dark with more than three quarters of them living in sub-Saharan Africa. In the period 2018-2020, the annual access growth was 0.5 percentage points, which should accelerate to an annual average of 0.9 percentage points so that universal access can be achieved by 2030. This requires significant efforts to reach those living in low-income, fragile and conflict-affected countries. The UN adds that in 2020, 69 per cent of the global population had access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. While more than half of those without access to clean cooking fuels live in Asia, 19 out of the 20 countries with the lowest percentage of people having access to clean cooking were least developed countries in Africa. The share of renewable sources in total final energy consumption amounted to 17.7 per cent globally in 2019, which is less than one percentage point higher than the figure for 2015. The electricity sector records the largest share of renewables in total final energy consumption (26.2 per cent in 2019) and drives most of the growth in renewable energy use, while the heat and transport sectors have seen limited progress. Global primary energy intensity defined as global total energy supply per unit of GDP, improved from 5.6 megajoules per dollar (2017 purchasing power parity) in 2010 to 4.7 megajoules in 2019. Since 2015, global energy intensity has improved by 1.6 per cent per year on average, which is still short of the 3.2 per cent annual rate now needed to reach Sustainable Development Goal 7.3. International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean and renewable energy reached $10.9 billion in 2019, 23.6 per cent lower than that in 2018 and represented a contraction even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2015, renewable capacity per capita has increased by 57.6 per cent, but Small Island developing States, least developed countries and landlocked developing countries has lagged behind. Gender and Consumer Rights The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) states that consumer protection is fundamental for assuring consumers' rights to information, education, safe products, protection of their economic interests, sustainable consumption, dispute resolution, or non-discrimination. However information and advertising are often not presented in a gender-neutral way, contributing to stereotyping and patterns that do not support gender equality. Additionally, some existing gender inequalities, such as in education or access to resources, may justify different consumer protection initiatives and tools for better supporting women. In many societies such as in Jamaica, women are particularly impacted as many families are female headed households. Women are the ones tasked with stretching the dollar in order to provide for the family. Access to affordable energy remains a cause for concern especially in an environment of inflation where the purchasing power of the consumer is under constant attack. Advocacy As consumers we need to be involved in the discussions not only on matters surrounding energy but on all matters which impacts us as consumers. This engagement as consumers is necessary in order to ensure that our voices are heard concerning policies which directly impact our lives and livelihood. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo © #WorldConsumerRightsDay #ConsumerRightsCommission