At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, in the era of so-called globalization, the supremacy of financial capital, and the privatization-driven era of the 1990s, which was particularly related to power supply, the commercialization of energy reached its peak.
On the other hand, resistance to this commercialization logic is also growing.
First, there is organized resistance to the way that governments whose economic policies are often tightly controlled by international financial institutions push up prices of energy products in the global South.
Second, the urban population, especially in the newly urbanized areas of the global south, has produced a broader resistance to the idea that electricity or fuel is a commodity. Communities that regard electricity as a right have engaged in large-scale social struggles.
Consume
These struggles are usually initiated by people living on the fringes of commercial energy systems. They usually use a small amount of electricity for heating, lighting and charging mobile phones, and use firewood for cooking.
Most energy is not bought and sold at all. There are also hundreds of millions of people, mainly in the rural areas of the global south, who are completely outside the commercialization system.
This system is the core and powerful manifestation of capitalist social relations, but it is not ubiquitous, it is not a whole, and it is not omnipotent. It can be challenged.
Looking to the future, the idea of decommodification is related to the technological, social and economic systems that change energy consumption; second, specific changes to the power system; third, the political platform being developed by the society and labor movement will deal with climate change and our society The desire for justice is combined.
First, Regarding the technological, social and economic systems that consume fossil fuels: Social and labor movements should focus more on energy conservation as the key to changing these systems.
system
To do this, it means breaking the analytical framework of energy as a commodity.
There are four overlapping ways to reduce the amount of fossil fuel energy passing through technical systems:
1. Reduce the number of energy services provided-for example, not making unnecessary work-related travel, and not manufacturing and using military aircraft.
2. Reduce the amount of final energy required to provide energy services-such as reducing heat requirements by insulating buildings, or replacing SUVs with bicycles.
3. Reduce the conversion loss in the technical system-for example, by reorganizing the power grid, reducing industrial waste, etc.
4. Replace systems that rely on fossil fuels with systems powered by renewable energy.
politician
In public discussions on decarbonization, the first three items are almost always tied under the label of “demand reduction”.
“Energy service” is a concept designed in the 1970s to make the energy flow in the system more transparent, and has been given a new meaning under the influence of economics.
Energy is understood as a commodity. Some politicians argue that the “economy” requires a fixed amount of this commodity and must find a way to provide it without fossil fuels; others argue that more attention should be paid to reducing the demand for this commodity.
However, neither view questioned the nature of energy-consuming technological systems, nor the social and economic systems that underpin them.
For example, city traffic. Politicians talk about replacing fossil-fuel vehicles with electric vehicles and “reducing demand” by persuading people to drive less.
Decentralized
These methods make the system beyond doubt—the technical system in which automobiles are the main mode of transportation, the powerful economic systems of automakers and oil companies, and the political systems that strengthen these power relations.
Once the mass production and use of energy commodities is seen as a function of these systems, rather than a response to “demand”, strategies to replace these systems can be formulated more effectively.
secondEspecially in the power system, the technical potential of energy saving can only be realized when the society and the economy also change.
The most advanced technology can promote energy conservation by leaps and bounds in the context of de-commercialization.
In the next few years, it is likely that (i) electricity will become more dominant in technological systems, (ii) it will be increasingly produced from renewable energy sources, and (iii) systems will become technologically More distributed-smaller source of electricity.
Decommodification
The power grid will adapt to the supply of renewable energy; there will be more microgrids; the power grid will be integrated with other networks.
These changes will happen regardless of whether the social and economic system changes. Power companies are aware of this, and in some cases are investing huge sums of money to manage these changes and find ways to make them profitable.
Compared with governments and enterprises, can society use this technology to give full play to its advantages, provide energy services that enable people to live better, and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels?
In principle, yes. Breaking the idea of electricity as a commodity for buying and selling is at the core of this.
Can the microgrid be combined with the latest information and communication technologies to provide a foundation for more far-reaching de-commodification?
wealth
Yes, they can, said electrical engineers and ICT experts who see the potential of “power sharing”. Others have written about the potential of Internet “commons” not controlled by companies.
A core question raised but not answered by the document is how we envision the transition from the current situation (the power network and the Internet are almost completely controlled by the company) to any such future situation.
third, It is important to understand the political platforms and requirements adopted by society and labor movement for decommodification.
As far as the current situation is concerned, most versions of the Green New Deal try to reconcile decarbonization and “economic growth.”
The social democratic political actions envisaged by the Green New Deal are constrained by the inherent wealth and power relations of capitalism.
state
Social movements at the local and community level, not at the national level, have also encountered these constraints.
In these movements, the idea of ”energy commons” is being discussed, which is secretly opposed to commodification. Some of these discussions focused on how society and communities can act “inside and outside the country.”
De-commercialization of energy means social relations, in which humans obtain and use energy from the natural world, and there is no commercialized form of exchange.
In this case, the current technology systems based on fossil fuels and the social and economic systems in which they are embedded must be transformed.
Although these relationships can be predicted at the community level, such projects will always be constrained by larger and more powerful commercial energy systems that overshadow them.
This does not mean that cooperation, local or municipal attempts to create space for the “energy commons” should be abandoned.
But we need to realize that not only the country, but also the commodity forms and power relations inherent in the capitalist economy are obstacles that we must face.
This author
Dr. Simon Pirani is an energy researcher and historian.His most recent book is Burned up: Global history of fossil fuel consumption (Pluto 2018).He is on the blog Human and Nature —— Where This article first appeared -And tweeted as @SimonPirani1.
full text, HEnergy is now commoditized, and how to decommodify, Available online here. possible Download as pdf here.
