Notre avenir est public : des inégalités mondiales à la justice sociale, économique et climatique

Intervention Richard Perrault, Vice-président

I am very happy and proud to participate in this exchange and to represent our NGO, which has been campaigning for more than 22 years for the recognition of the right to access to energy for all, as we consider that without electricity, there can be no sustainable development for human beings. The right to energy, like the right to access to water, the right to decent housing and the right to health, is one of the essential rights to eradicate poverty. Unfortunately, these essential rights, which are provided by public services in the interest of the majority, have been commodified and privatised for several decades on all continents. We can see this in the case of energy. The multinationals, which have seen their profits increase year after year, and even more so with the energy war that is now taking place, are choosing to pay more and more dividends to shareholders while at the same time energy prices have never been so high and access to it has become more difficult for the poorest people, particularly in the poorest countries, and we are witnessing a sharp increase in energy insecurity.

Privatisation and competition in the sector are not the answer to providing access to energy for all. Nor are they the answer to combating global warming, or to bringing down prices. In fact, the opposite is true. In all countries, the same political logic of commodification of essential goods is failing. We can unite and create hope. Together, NGOs, consumer associations, citizens, trade unions, let us work to build projects that put public services back at the heart of essential rights.

Today, our NGO is pleased to participate in this initiative. We give our full support to this meeting and we are ready to build with you all the answers and to lead the struggles that will allow us to bring the right to water, the right to housing, to energy as essential rights for all the peoples of the planet. Putting an end to energy insecurity and poverty also means helping disadvantaged populations to gain access to safe means of cooking and thus helping to reduce the number of people who die prematurely each year because of the pollution caused by the conditions in which biomass is burned. It is also an issue of women's emancipation.
Our NGO is calling for the right to energy to be enshrined as a fundamental right in every state constitution.
Our NGO has been campaigning for many years for the UN to recognise a world energy day, which could be similar to the one for water celebrated every 22 March. We want to win a world day for the right to energy, which would be an annual high point in the mobilisation of all actors (international institutions, governments, companies and civil society) in this sector. It would be an annual moment to measure the progress made in expanding this right. It is ambitious, but if we all work together, we can succeed. Another world is possible, let's build it!