How to overcome the combination of crises?

Abstract

Today, wind power and solar power have become the main stream of energy sources; from major electric power utilities to mega capital investors, many have entered the renewable energy sector. Mass-capital investment projects are also increasingly and rapidly expanding globally. It is not rare to find cases of such mega projects facing confrontations with local communities. Since the 1990s, the privatization of the energy sector has been significant, with Nordic countries and Germany seeing the advancement of privatization among community-operated energy utilities. Recently, however, there has been a movement to re-review this trend in order to revive public utilities. The recent reversal of the privatization trend means that the conventional way of decision-making with the participation of local governments and a few corporations is no longer appropriate, and there is a rise in the common understanding that the decision-making and governance method of local communities must be open and horizontally distributed. The rapid progress of ICT in recent years has raised awareness of risks in a governance system dominated by private companies, while raising technical capabilities to realize new and open decisionmaking and governance in local communities.